


Red Hands

by aelinofwildfire



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Based on a song, BillDip, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Human Bill Cipher, M/M, Post-Weirdmageddon, Slow Burn, The chapters get longer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2018-10-22 19:03:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 50,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10703172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelinofwildfire/pseuds/aelinofwildfire
Summary: Mabel and Dipper Pines are excited for the coming winter break. At last, a break from all the stress from their college. But until Bill Rephic—yeah, that's right—becomes Dipper's partner for an over break project.The twins have winter break already figured out: Going to their parent's house over the course of it.How are they even going to deal with Bill?WKUHH OHWWHUV EDFN





	1. QEB XPPFDKJBKQ

Dipper Pines woke up with a sigh. Another day, another random allergy. Today he woke up with a stuffy nose. He had to breathe through his mouth.  _Amazing,_ Dipper thought sarcastically as he forced himself out of bed for the new day. 

Dipper didn't bother to shower. The clock said  _8:33,_ and his first class starts at nine. With a jolt, the 19-year old boy quickly put on a navy blue hoodie, jeans, and threw on some converse. Then he combed his hair. 

"Here I go," Dipper whispered, heading out his dorm's door and running to class.  _8:51,_ his phone read. He held onto his messenger bag filled with his notebooks and pens and phone charger. He could barely run properly with that stupid bag slapping against his thigh everytime he takes a step. 

Finally, he reached the right building. With an intake of breath, he opened the doors.  _8:56._ Dipper laughed through his nose. New highscore. He walked the rest of the way to his Creative Writing class. 

Dipper had always strived to be an author. Ever since he had found his great uncle's journal in the forest, he had wanted to be just like him. He liked how he made everything inside look and seem so sereal, like the creatures were popping right out of the page. Dipper is a pretty decent artist as well. 

Dipper usually free-writes about all of the...things he had encountered in Gravity Falls. The gnomes, the gremloblins...even the Society of the Blind Eye!

He opened the door. He was just in time...9:00. 

He walked to his usual spot. But he eyed someone in particular who sat right next to his seat that he had always sat in all year. 

But then Dipper realized who it was with a groan.  

"Bill!" Dipper whisper-shouted irritably, sniffing his runny nose. He sat in his usual chair next to him stubbornly and put his messenger bag in the seat next to him. "What are you doing over here?" 

Yep, it was Bill Rephic alright. The annoying guy has always teased him and that shit when he and Mabel came to the college. Bill was older than both Mabel and Dipper by a year, and he always mentions it. 

"Pines!" Bill ruffled his stupid blonde hair. "Looks like you made it!" 

Dipper glared at him. Ugh, can his day be any worse than this? He huffed, turning to get his notebook out. "Why are you sitting by me?" He deadpanned. 

Bill smirked. "You're the one who chose to not move to another seat!" He propped his elbows on the table and held his face in his hands. 

Dipper sighed. Point taken. Wait... "But it's still my seat. That I have had all year." Dipper pointed backwards. "You sit  _over there._ " Dipper felt like he was talking to a child.

But it was too late for Bill to say anything or move, because the professor walked in. 

Dipper turned to Bill. "We'll finish this later," he sighed. At least it was his last day until winter break. Then there will be no more Bill Rephic for two and a half weeks. 

The professor smiled at the class, but quickly turned on the projector. 

"Hello, everyone!" he said, turning his computer on. "I have a new assignment for you all," he pulled up a rubric. "Today you will be given a prompt to write during winter break." He turned to the board, where the rubric was presented upon. 

"You will be working in groups," he informed,"you will be working with the person sitting next to you." 

Dipper turned his head sharply at Bill. There he was, with his stupid smirk, and fiddling with his stupid clip-on bowtie. It was like he _knew_ this would happen. 

Of course he would. 

He knew that this would piss him off. He knew they had to spend time with this together over the break—

Wait. 

Dipper was about to scream. 

He was supposed to be leaving for Piedmont tomorrow morning for Christmas for the whole break. He couldn't just cancel his plans...

Oh, Dipper was fuming. He wanted to pound his fists on the tabel.

The professor continued, "Your writing prompt will be,'use the lyrics of your favorite song to be the basis of your short story'. It can be any genre, and please make sure to take a picture of the rubric." He turned to sit in his seat. "And I'll leave you at that! Class **d** ismissed early, you'll need some time to plan with your partner." 

Dipper fumbled out his phone out of his pocket sharply and took a quick picture. Finally, he turned to Bill. He crossed his arms waited for him to gloat his victory. 

Bill chuckled at him. "What?" 

It was like Bill knew that Dipper had plans. It was like he knew the partners would be chosen that way. 

"You knew." Was all he said. 

Bill shrugged. "Knew what? I just wanted a new place to sit. Turns out I need glasses," he smiled. 

Dipper's glare could send anyone tunneling into the **g** round. 

Dipper sighed sharply. "I have plans with family tomorrow. All break. Yeah, anyone else that wasn't you I could bring with me, but now that you're here..." Dipper squeezed his eyes shut. He was rambling. He was rambling because he was mad. No—pissed. 

Bill didn't say anything, he just looked like he was going to explode if he didn't let all his laughter out. 

Dipper slouched into his chair. He lost. Bill won. "Go ahead." He mumbled, defeated. 

Bill let out laughter. A lot of laughter. Two minutes. He's been laughing for two minutes now. Dipper sighed, looking out the window. How was he going to deal with  _him_ all break?


	2. QLJKW CHUR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What had Dipper gotten himself into?

Dipper sighed as he was walking to the cafeteria for lunch, where his sister was waiting for him. Yep. She was sure going to lecture him on the situation.

He snuggled into his stained coat as he walked out of his dorm's doors and onto the sidewalk. For Portland weather, it was damn _cold_.

Dipper could see his breath as he looked through the windows beside him, the cafeteria's windows. He was close to it now.

But yet he pondered...what would he say to Mabe **l** about the unfortunate accident? Eh, he could figure it out once it comes up. He didn't even want to think about the position he was in.

The brunet finally opened the door to the large, heated cafeteria. He loosened a breath as he searched for his sister.

At last, the boy found the brown haired girl, surrounded by her friends as always. He walked hastily over to them in the crowded lunchroom and sat next to Mabel's friend, Pacifica.

"Hey, bro bro!" Exclaimed Mabel, her hair bouncing. She unsurprisingly had a new sweater on. This time, it was red with a white alpaca on the front with a Santa hat on.

"Hi, Mabel," He set his messenger bag on the ground and faced the rest of the crew.

The red-head, Wendy, chuckled. "Geez, how much sleep did you get last night?" She nudged the emo-looking dude next to her, Robbie. He's actually less edgy than before, surprisingly. He's doing pretty well.

The blonde by Dipper's side scoffed. "Probably none, if you really look at him." She adjusted her own alpaca sweater that Mabel gave her some years ago, which still fit.

Mabel blew a raspberry. "You look like you have something on your mind," she furrowed her brows,"care to share with us, Broseph?" She rested her head on her hand, gesturing him to tell his problem.

 _Here goes nothing_ , thought Dipper. He intakes a breath and asks,"So you know Bill, right?" He twiddled with his coat sleeves.

The table gasps.

Robbie narrows his eyes. "Bill Rephic?" He says.

Dipper chuckled nervously. "Yeah, well, there's this project in creative writing class and we just _happen_ to be partners for this project we have to work on winter break." He inwardly cringes as he remembers the blond's stupid smirk and how he laughed his ass off about earlier.

Mabel's eyes widened and lifts her head. "But we're with family the _entire_ break!"

"Sup, Pines. Ready for tomorrow?"

Dipper sharply turned around in his seat to see the arrogant bastard. Bill.

Wendy crossed her arms. "That little..." She leaned backwards in her seat. Robbie stilled beside her, Pacifica and Mabel glaring with all they had.

"What?" Bill shrugged as he took the empty seat next to Dipper. Dipper scooted as far as he could from him. Oh, he was so done with his shit.

Mabel pouted. "Hi, Bill. Welcome, I guess." She turned to Dipper and mouthed,"good luck".

Dipper nodded. "Duly noted." He took out his phone to text his parents of the sudden new child coming to the Christmas break event at their house.

Bill leans forward, ruffling his blond hair. "So, have you figured out what song to use for the prompt?" He says after the awkward silence.

Dipper gritted his teeth and looked at him from the corner of his eye, hoping he'd just go away. Hoping this whole problem would go away. He pulled up the text message app on his phone. "No, you twat, it's only been an hour since class."

Dipper quickly texted his mom:

_**Is it ok that I bring a friend?** _

Dipper sighed at "friend". They were far from that.

Bill popped out his vest's collar. He then put a wounded hand to his chest. "Why am I to blame for this?" He asks.

Dipper put his phone down and faced him. "Because _you're_ the one with the red hands, Bill!" He crossed his arms.

"Yeah, bro! You tell him!" Mabel yelled from behind him. The tables around them thankfully never grew quiet, Dipper would never live if they got attention.

Bill gasped. "Ah! Oh, I got a song idea!" Dipper rolled his eyes but still leaned forward to Bill as he pulled up google, typing something in.

The song that Bill pulled up was called Red Hands, by a band he'd never heard of. Dipper couldn't be more agitated at that moment. A song for a school project based off of something he said.

But then his phone buzzed. His mom texted him back:

**_Of course, little Mason! Just make sure his parents are all right with it._ **

Bill grinned as he read the text on Dipper's phone. "I already told 'em," He said.

Dipper groaned inwardly.

He really wish they hadn't.

~o~

After lunch, Dipper reluctantly took Bill back to his dorm. Mabel and friends wished him good luck, but Mabel as well since she has to deal with him too. It probably won't be as bad for her than it was for Dipper, though, as he was the one that had to spend the break with him the _entire time._

The brunet sighed as he opened his door. "Make yourself at home," he murmured as he sloppily put his keys back in his bag.

Dipper grabbed a pillow from his bed, set it on the floor, and sat on it as he pulled out is Creative Writing folder. He opened up his phone to the rubric he took a picture of.

Bill sat on the carpet across from h **i** m,taking out his phone too. "So, are we gon' plan it now or what?" He rested his chin on the palms of his hands as he crossed his legs, sitting as a child would as if someone was telling them an interesting story.

Dipper scoffed at his position, but held up his phone. "Actually, we are going to look at the rubric first."

Bill groaned pointedly and rolled his eyes. "Boring!"

Dipper sighed, wondering yet again how he was going to deal with this literal man child. "Yes, I know it's boring, but it's for a good grade," He pulled it up.

**Song Prompt:  
1.) Grammar and punctuation**

Dipper rolled his eyes. Of course. Always the number one rule. Bill was looking at it over his shoulder, but Dipper was too tired to tell him to back off.

**2.) Based off of a real song**

He cringed. Check.

**3.) Meaningful characters. Can be your own or a celebrity  
4.) Character has to be put in a problem with a resolution at the end  
5.) Max pages: 5. No double-sided**

Well damn.

**6.) 12 point font, Times New Roman**

Bill groaned. "This thing is going to take forever!" Flopped onto the ground, arms sprawled out and a face full of defeat.

Dipper grinned. "Well, that's probably why they gave us two weeks and a half of winter break." Luckily for both of them, he already had a few ideas for characters already. He'd have to look at the song that night.

"I am dead."

"Yes, I can see that."

Bill then rolled onto his stomach. "This is gonna kick my butt." He said. Picked at the carpet fringes, his brown eyes gazing over it.

Meanwhile, Dipper excitedly grabbed his computer out of his bag and flipped it open. He started a Word doc on it for later.

He beamed and crossed his arms, looking down at the beat Bill. "Well, we got the basics down." He reported. He quickly saved it and put the computer on his charger for tomorrow.

Dipper took off his hat and put it on his nightstand. He was excited for the break, excluding Bill. He would get to see most of his family again, exchange Christmas presents, go to the park...

Bill pulled his phone out of his pocket and fiddled with it for a second. "Alright," He finally said in a tight voice. He sat up and faced Dipper,"I have work tomorrow at the gas station, and my shift is off noon."

He smirked before adding,"I already told 'em I'd be gone."

Dipper groaned loudly. "Ugh, of course you did, you brat." The brunet stood up and put his pillow back on his bed. "So, we're leaving at noon tomorrow?" He asked. Bill nodded.

"I'm driving!" Bill roared.

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Piedmont is 10 hours away, fucktard. We're taking turns." He crossed his arms and looked defiantly down at Bill.

It was Bill's turn to groan now. "Fine!"

Dipper flipped open his notebook. "We can either both take a nap or work on the prompt or somethin' during the breaks." He opened a clean page and titled it,' _Song prompt_ _characters(?)_.'

Bill fidgeted on the floor. " _Boring_!" He exclaimed.

"Everything is boring to you." But that is when Dipper's phone buzzed again. It was Mabel:

_**Hey, bro! I'm bringing Paz to the Christmas thing at home. ALSO!!!!!!!!!! Don't forget to buy presents or you're dead >:((((!!!! (PS, buy me TWO presents ;) ;) ;) ;) ) love you!!<3<3 :3** _

Dipper laughed softly at the text. His sister was addicted to those emojis. And also, it was great that Pacifica was going, in his opinion. First off, he had a friend going as well, and also that lifts babysitting Bill off of his shoulders for a bit. For a nineteen-year old, Bill can sure act like a six-year old. Maybe he and his cousins can get along well. He quickly shot a text back:

_**Great! (And fine, I will, sis.)** _

He wondered what to get everyone. He'll just probably buy the presents down in Piedmont, there was no time that afternoon.

"So we got everything _settled_ ," Dipper pointedly reminded Bill. "So you are picking me up tomorrow, and I'll give you the directions." He motioned to the door. "Alright, nice seeing you, bye!"

Bill hurried out the door with his stuff, along with a big ' _I'll see you on the flip side, Pines!_ '

Dipper glanced at the closed door. _Finally_. These were the last moments of peace for him for two weeks so he'd better make the most of it.

_Time to start a 7-hour bath._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to make it long without making it entirely boring, I'm just not that good of a writer lol. But again, this story is only just beginning, and the more interesting and long stuff is coming in later ;) and lol, my style might change in the middle of this story and improve. 
> 
> Hopefully, hope you enjoy the rest of this crazy ride!!


	3. GDB RQH

Bill drummed his fingers repeatedly of the counter at his work. He couldn't wait for the trip with Pines. He's never really been on those before his time here.

The business at the gas station he works at has been booming with customers who were going on break out of town as well. Getting gas, snacks, earbuds, that stuff.

He looks at a little red-haired boy at the back of the building—9, maybe—picking out a drink. He looked like he couldn't figure out whether to get chocolate milk or Gatorade. His mother saw it as well and advises him to get the chocolate milk, as the Gatorade will make him hyper the entire trip. Bill chuckled.

He thought about how the trip will be with the bossy Pines. He smirked. Hopefully the kid won't fight him if he picks out his music. ...Bill will let him chose what music to listen to when it will be his turn to drive. He wondered what kind of music he listened to—probably the opposite of his style.

Now, the woman with her nine-year old son came up to the counter. She smiled sweetly at Bill and put the chocolate milk and a drink for herself and some candy on the counter as well. "Hi!" He acknowledged. Greeting customers like that was surprisingly not tiring where he works.

He took the drinks and candy, scanned it, and asked if he should put it in a bag. Again, job description. The mother nodded and Bill put it in. He checked the price and reported,"$7.34." She reached into her purse and retrieved a couple of dollar bills and handed them to him.

Bill counted the money and realized it was way more than what the original price was. The woman gave him twenty dollars in fives. His amber eyes widened at her. "Keep the change," she winked. She grabbed the bag and headed out the door with her son, the bell on top of the door ringing.

"Merry Christmas..." he sputtered, looking at the door where the mother last was. No one has given him an...extra large tip before. And this was pretty extra. Like, this was almost fifteen dollars. He absentmindedly put the seven dollars into the cash register and stuffed the extra money into his jeans pocket.

People are just that nice, he thought. He took out his phone and checked the time. 12:00 PM, it read. Bill's eyes brightened. His shift was over! It was officially Christmas break for him. He shot a quick text to the next guy on the shift, collected his paycheck, and headed out the door to his car.

"Time to pick up Pines," he said quietly to himself as he started up his yellow Ford aspire—yellow, unsurprising, innit?—and buckled himself up. He already put his belongings in the trunk before work and a cooler in the backseat for waters and all that.

On the drive to the college, he thought about what will happen on the trip. Will it be quiet? Talkative? Probably quiet, the kid kinda hates his guts at the moment. Not like Pines never did stop hating him, but you get the gist. He also wondered what to expect of his family. He knew Mabel and heard about their "Grunkles" sometimes, but Mabel and Pines' personalities are so far apart. Maybe the family will be all over the place and such. The blond wondered if the —probably— chaotic family will feel about him once they arrive.

Bill chuckled at the thought of Pines' family welcoming him with open arms. Pines will probably be glaring a hole through his back if that ever happens.

Finally, he reached the modern-looking dormitories and went into building C, where Pines resided. He walked up to dorm 46 and knocked cheerfully. "Coming!" Pines called, muffled from the closed door.

The bland, white dorm door opened. Dipper's face looked unhappy to see Bill himself, but the 21-year old new he was excited for the trip overall. Christmas and his family and all. "Ready to leave?" Bill asked.

Pines left the door opened as he gathered his things: a suitcase and his messenger bag. And a blanket for the ride. "Yep," the brunet said, turning his back to Bill to lock the door. Once he finished that, he and Bill walked to Bill's flashy car.

"Yellow," Dipper deadpanned. "Why am I not surprised?" He put his suitcase in the trunk, closed it, and brought the rest of his stuff to the front seat with him. He closed and locked the door, getting buckled.

Bill grinned. "Yellow's the best color!" He protested as he buckled himself up once again. He started the car up. Now, time to turn on the playlist!

Dipper scoffed. "As if. I, for one—" he paused. "Is...is this Kesha?" He turned to Bill and tried to contain his laughter. "Seriously? This song is like..." Pines moved his hands randomly in the air,"...so old," He smoothed his fluffy blanket over his legs.

Bill glanced at him as he reversed out of the parking spot. "What? Kesha is a great singer." He pointed out.

Dipper stayed silent as Die Young blasted through the car's speakers. He remained quiet to prove his point as he crossed his arms.

Bill squinted at him. "Well, you just have to deal with it, kid, you'll be dealing with this kind of music for two and a half hours. ...two times." He gave a lopsided grin to Dipper as the adult shivered.

"Well damn," Pines said. "Good thing I actually have my own playlist." He simpered, looking as if he felt pleased with himself.

Bill chuckled silently. "I'll try not to annoy you during this 10-hour ride. I have my own selection of 'annoying' songs," Was all Bill said as the chorus of the song blared through his ears.

Dipper groaned and threw his head against the headrest of the seat. "You little shit!"

Around two hours later, Bill sang along irritatingly to the lyrics of _Stacy's Mom_ , which was the fourth time the song played. Dipper's eyes darted to the time. It was 2:00. "Can we go eat lunch now?" He asked.

They were passing by a town with restaurants and stores and all that, and there was an exit up ahead. Bill stopped singing. "Sure thing," he said, switching to the other lane,"I'm starving."

"Hm." Dipper looked out his window to the restaurants and fast food places that were in sight. "McDonald's will be fast and cheap." He suggested, pointing his thumb to it.

Bill turned right into the small parking lot. "I agree, you don't have to get anything off of the dollar menu though. I have plenty money."

"Ah, yes, I noticed," answered the 19-year old. He looked at Bill. "But as much as I dislike you very much, I can't take your money. I can pay for myself," Dipper raised an eyebrow. "Besides, I still have to buy a few Christmas presents. I have enough as well."

Bill shrugged. "Suit yourself." He unbuckled his seatbelt, turned off the car, and got out of it. As did Dipper. The both of them headed to the greasy restaurant. Dipper just craved a shake, he needed one.

Dipper bought himself just a cheeseburger, fries, and a shake of course. He didn't really care what Bill got, it didn't matter. He picked out a booth for them to sit at and set his food on the table and got his computer out of his messenger bag. Thank the Lord for McDonald's free wifi, he thought as he opened it up.

Bill sat across from him once he got his cup filled up with whatever he was drinking. The blond watched as Dipper typed stuff on his computer. "Rude," he muttered and brought out his phone.

Dipper's eyes snapped back at him. "No, we need to work on the story, hang on," he bit into his cheeseburger.

Bill groaned loudly. "Ugh! Right now?"

Dipper rolled his brown eyes. "Yeah, before we forget about it. Anyway, what is the song even about? I haven't had the chance to look at the lyrics yet." He pulled up the Word doc and waited for Bill to answer.

Bill took a sip out of his drink. "They're singing about a person who made mistakes in the past, obviously. 'Red Hands', ya know?" He affirmed with a bored expression.

Dipper's eyes narrowed. "Of course," he said as he typed it in at the top in bold letters. "Now," he said louder that time,"time for the full plot! Here are the characters I came up with..."

About half an hour after, Dipper put his computer back into his messenger bag as the two boys both finished figuring out the gist of the plot and typing it all in, also in bold letters.

"Finally." Bill's face immediately brightened. By the time they both had finished all that, they were done eating lunch and all that. "Ready to go?" He asked Dipper.

"Yeah," he replied as he threw his trash away. "I get to drive now!" He hollered as he ran to the driver's seat of the car. He heard Bill say "fine" behind him.

They both settled into the car and Dipper asked him,"Do you have an aux cord?" He pulled his phone out and put his blanket and messenger bag in the backseat floor.

Bill pulled it out of the glovebox and handed to him. "You're music choice is definitely going to be bigger than mine." He predicted.

Dipper just grunted in acknowledgment as he chose out his playlist. His music style consisted of some not-so-popular songs and the lesser artists and chillhop. Like, he likes chill everything. Chillstep, chillhop, all that. It helps him concentrate.

The playlist started in the car's speakers and Dipper was immediately content. Bill's music choice wasn't bad, but this was what hit him.

He pulled out of the parking lot and quietly sang King and Lionheart along to the words. Meanwhile, Bill closed his eyes but didn't go to sleep.

No one to annoy him. Calming music. Stomach comfortably full. A heated seat. Dipper was fully and honestly at rest.

He drove with his thoughts to himself. Hm, what to get for his family. He wanted to plan ahead for tomorrow. Mabel would like something that would be sparkly. He knew she was really passionate with designing clothes, so he could get her a glittery sketchbook.

Stan and Ford would be slightly harder. He knew Ford was into supernatural stuff like Dipper, so he probably could get him a little alien guy to go along with his UFO keychain. For Stan, he could get him...maybe an old man magazine? He didn't know. Or he could just give him five bucks or something.

He broke out of his thoughts when Bill turned slightly and murmured,"get the damn pie,". So Bill was asleep. Dipper chuckled. What if he turned to the next town and surprised Bill with a pie when he woke up? Maybe Dipper could smack it in his face to wake him up. 'Here's your pie!' He would say.

But nah. He wouldn't want to get the seat dirty, he was going to sit in it next.

Besides, his two and a half hours of driving was already almost up, he realized. It was almost five.

But still, Dipper wondered... what would his family think of Bill? He knew Mabel texted once or twice to their mom about Bill in their weekly texts to her and their dad of what was going on. And would Bill tease him like he always had all semester? Bill wasn't as cocky to him and his sister these days for some reason. It was weird.

Bill was weird.

An hour into Bill's driving, Bill cried out, "Alright, Pines! It's dinner, let's go to Wendy's."

"But we haven't--"

"Wendy's it is."

Dipper sighed through his nose. "When can we just agree on something?" He glared over to Bill. "Ever since you woke up, you've been annoying as ever."

Bill grinned. "I do what I do, and I do it well." He peered at one of the green signs on the side of the rode. "And I'm hungry for some fries, so. And a frosty."

Dipper looked through the window as Bill merged into an exit again. "Can we get drive-thru?" He asked, looking at the car's digital clock. "I wanna be there by 10:30, no less." He added silently,"I just want to get out of this car." He got used to the axe smell, at least.

The blonde glanced at him and turned the steering wheel slowly. "No worries, we'll do that and get food in that cranky food-hole of yours." He drove into the Wendy's drive-thru lane, behind a couple of other cars. "And isn't boring, being so virtuous?" He asked.

Dipper rolled his eyes and told Bill what he wanted to eat. He was still stuffed after the shake he had earlier, but fries sounded good right now. He could probably steal a few fries from Bill if he was sneaky enough.

Once they got their food, Dipper inhaled the smell of his chicken nuggets and fries. A simple and cheap dinner. He soon ate all of his fries, and, while Bill was driving, Dipper kept his promise to himself and stole Bill's fries when he wasn't looking.

Soon sleep overtook him like a dark wave  

Around 7 in the evening, Dipper woke up to Bill nudging him awake. "What d'you want," He murmured, rubbing his eyes groggily.

The blonde chuckled nervously. "I was actually wondering what to expect when we arrive. I mean, I don't want to look like some ignorant jerk, right?" He gave a lopsided grin to him.

Dipper sighed, resting his forehead on the window. "Yeah, well, you know Mabel. Anyone in particular?"

Bill's face twisted a bit. "Didn't Mabel mention 'grunkles' at some point? What are those?" He asked, fixing his eyes on the dark road in front of him, his front headlights illuminating the area.

Dipper's face softened a bit. He smiled slightly. "Those are our great uncles." He said simply. "We visit them in Gravity Falls over summer." He wanted to tell Bill—or someone—more about them. About their amazing adventures, the magic, about how aliens are real...

But this is Bill Rephic we're talking about.

Dipper's smile faded.

Bill glanced his way again. "What about your parents?" He asked, taking a sip of his drink from Wendy's that he refilled up earlier, apparently.

Dipper snuggled into his warm blanket. "Well, my mom, she works at a bank. My dad, he's actually an engineer." He fumbled with his fingers under the cloth. "Not much to tell, I guess." He looked out the window. "Then there's my aunt and uncle. They're fun people, they used to take Mabel and I on walks to the ice cream place when we were little." He smiled fondly at the memory. "My Grandpa Shermy is pretty cool too. That's about it." He leaned his head against the headrest. "M'tired."

Bill turned to him with wide eyes. "It's your turn in half an hour, you're going to fall asleep on the road!" He gasped. But then he relaxed as a teasing smirk fell upon his face. "I could just drive the rest of he way," He stated as he turned Californiacation up a little bit.

All Dipper did was glare at him as he got out his phone and ignored him. I'll make sure I'll get him a pair of white socks for Christmas, he confirmed.

  
Now the time was _9:30_ , and Dipper was almost home from his somewhat break. Hint hint, Bill. He was so excited to be back home, this trip took ten billion years, Bill like a weight on his ankle and drawing him downward.

Dipper couldn't wa **i** t to see his parents. He was excited to see his parents. He was so happy for another reunion of all of the family members that he hadn't seen for some time together.

Dipper beamed a smile as he saw the sign for the town he lived in—they had reached Piedmont a little while ago. He glanced over at Bill to make sure he wasn't doing anything he was supposed to be seeing.

But Bill was being Bill. He was on his phone, as usual.

Dipper was about to turn for the exit, but Bill jumped up and exclaimed loudly,"Did you see that?!" He gasped.

Dipper slammed on his breaks and looked around, there was a deer or something in the road. "What?" It took Dipper a second to realized. He sighed. "You fucker," Dipper mumbled as he started his drive toward the exit.

Bill burst out laughing. "You-you had that comin',Pines!" He wheezed.

The nineteen-year old sighed. "You have a problem." He implied as he continued to drive.

The blond was trying to regain his breath. "We all do Pines."

Dipper stopped at a stoplight and turned to look at Bill. "That's a weird thing to say," then he shrugged. "But then again, you are weird." The light turned green, the bright hue resting against the windshield. But so am I, He thought.

Bill blew out a puff of air as he finally calmed down from his laughing fit. "You act like you're not impressed." He told him as he ran a hand through his stupid blond hair.

Dipper groaned at his response. He focused on the street names. No...no...n—yes! "We're here!" He proclaimed as he pulled into the street. The house was only under a minute away.

"Sweet!" Bill answered. "Can't wait to go to sleep." He looked ready to get unbuckled.

Dipper nodded. "Me too, but we still have to unpack and stuff." He heard Bill groan loudly. Dipper narrowed his eyes. "At least we're here," He pulled into a driveway which was already filled with three cars—his parent's and his Grunkles'.

Dipper immediately unbuckled himself and got out of the car to stretch. He heard Bill get out too, heading for the trunk. Looks and sounds as if being cocky for a whole day really does a number on you.

The brunet slung his messenger back over his shoulder and grabbed his blanket. He took the keys and closed the door. Then he got the rest of his stuff out of the trunk. He turned to Bill. "Here're your keys." He tossed them to the 21-year old caught them with ease.

Dipper listened to the sounds of the crickets singing as he unlocked the door with his key. He heard the lock click and he opened the door.

"You're home!" Called a booming voice, which belonged to his mother. Her shoulder-length brown hair bounced as she came up to embrace him. "I haven't seen you in so long," Dipper was about to reply that she saw him for Thanksgiving, but her eyes caught the look of Bill. She pulled away from him. "Who's this?" She asked, going to stand in front of the blond.

Dipper rolled his eyes slightly. "That's Bill. The friend I brought over." The brunet cringed at the word.

His mother immediately brightened. She held out her hand for him to shake. He cautiously took her hand and shook. Then he brought it back to his side. "Hello!" She greeted,"I am Dipper's mother. Make yourself at home! You can call me Mrs. Pines or Leah, it doesn't matter."

Dipper chuckled into his hand as he saw the tired Bill look uncomfortable. Bill smiled nervously. "Nice to meet you too, Mrs. Pines," He acknowledged. She went out of the room. Bill walked slowly over to Dipper. "She reminds me of your sister," He whispered.

Dipper laughed. "Genes." He was about to go upstairs, but two old men came through the kitchen door.

"Dipper!" His Grunkles greeted happily, wrapping him in a hug. Dipper stiffened and his face started to turn blue as he ran out of air.

"Nice to...see you too..." The brunet grounded out as he pawed against his Grunkles' arms. Finally, they pulled away.

Stan's eyes crinkled. "It's nice to see ya, kid! You've gotten shorter," Stan was the same. He wore a blue sweater with a reindeer on it. Most likely made by Mabel.

Ford beamed a large smile. "It's so good to see you!" Dipper saw him last summer, but okay. His Great Uncle's hair got whiter, other than that, he looked the same as well. He wore a red sweater with a tall Christmas tree on it. He finally turned to Bill, who waved a bit.

"Who's this?" Stan asked, moving over to him.

Dipper didn't move. "That's Bill, a friend from college." It still made him want to die every time he said it.

Ford studied him. He held out a six-fingered hand and smiled. "Welcome to the family, boy."

  
Later, Dipper and Bill were put into his room. He was told that the house needed all the rooms they could get because a lot of other family members would need them.

Bill could've just slept on the couch in the living room or something.

Dipper got a air bed for him, though. Bill brought his own bed stuff, unsurprisingly. He wondered how he could fit all of that shit into his bag.

Eh. The man's a mystery. But right now, he was home, and he just wanted to sleep...

And so he did. 


	4. GBD WZR

_BLEEP_.

The alarm on the computer sounds as Dipper attempted to type in another eight letter word into the password box. He's been working on this ever since this morning, and he's tried a variety of different words but he just can't get it to open up. He tried again, trying _abstract_ but then again—

 _BLEEP_.

"Come _on—!_ " The boy grimaced and pounded on the computer. **H** e tried another word: _constant_. Probably because of the _constant_ beeping—

 _BLEEP_.

Dipper shook his head. His eyebrows drew together and clenched his fists. He groaned. "I can't take that stupid sound anymore!" He pounded on the computer again. " _I. Hate. You. Sound!_ " That only caused four more _bleeping_ noises screaming at him.

He yawned and looked out into the trees from his spot on the roof. "There has to be some sort of shortcut, or clue..." He rubbed his eyes.

As if on cue, a strong, cool breeze passed through the summer air. Dipper snuggled into his jacket and stood up. He wondered if he should go back inside, it might rain soon. There was a nonstop creaking noise from the weather vane, as it was spinning rapidly. The fullmoon shone brightly behind him. Yeah, he should really go inside—wait. No, the moon looks too bright on the Mystery Shack.

Dipper slowly turned around. He gasped and jumped back; the moon was as almost bright as the sun, and there was a slit down the middle. Before he could process anything else, a strident laugh crescendoed over the forest. The voice sounded everywhere.

Then, blue, bright bricks formed into a shape of a triangle. A flashing light swallowed the shape up for a heartbeat until _he_ appeared.

"I think I know a guy!"

 _Bill Cipher_.

 

Dipper Pines awoke with a gasp. He hadn't had a dream like that in years, he realized, the last time was about a year after their first trip to Gravity Falls.

But why now? He hadn't even thought of the demon triangle since...what if _he_ sent him the dream?

Dipper shook his head and put his knees to his chest. _No, Bill Cipher is defeated. It couldn't have been him that sent that dream,_ he thought.

He looked onto the floor to see Rephic's air mattress empty, sheets and blanket made and everything. Of course. Bill always felt the need to make everything perfect. For emphasis, Dipper thrust his sheets toward the wall and lazily got out of bed.

Deciding his red t-shirt and shorts were appropriate, Dipper walked down the stairs without changing into something different. He was too lazy to change into something more nice.

Faint laughter came from the living room. Deciding to investigate, Dipper trudged towards it. His brown eyes widened in surprise as he saw Bill and Stan...bonding.

Dipper awkwardly knocked on the wall next to him.

Stan turned around from his seat from the end of the couch, wearing his casual wear consisting of his white undershirt and his boxers. That was normal. He waved lazily at him. "Mornin', sleeping beauty. You slept all the way till 1!"

Dipper felt his face get hot. He slept till 1 PM. _I probably look like a wreck_ , he thought to himself. "Yeah, well, I'm gonna eat something," he excused himself from the room and fast-walked into the kitchen to make some three-minute mac n cheese.

As he put the bowl into the microwave and set the timer, he wondered about his dream that he had the night before. Why would he have a flashback dream from his first summer? Did Cipher have anything to do with it? That's impossible, he's defeated. Dipper didn't know. He wasn't so sure he even wanted to know, either.

The same time the microwave _dinged_ , a booming voice shot up from beside him. "Heya, Pines!"

Dipper jerked away from him instinctively. Realizing that it was only Bill, his shoulders loosened a bit. He glared at the blond to silently demand him why he snuck up on him.

Bill chuckled. "Hey, I was only saying hi! No harm done," he wiped off nonexistent dust from his shoulders.

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Whatever." he took his mac n cheese out of the microwave and poured the cheese in.

"Oh!" exclaimed the blond,"Stan told me to tell you earlier that he needs you to shop for presents. Everyone's doing it." he snickered. "And he wants you to take someone with you...and it's not going to be me."

Dipper paused, wondering what he meant, but then he heard laughter. His 11-year-old cousins were here. He glared at Bill. "I'd rather take you than them!" he protested.

"Nope, too late, I'm gonna go, bye!"

That's when Dipper was left in the dust with his mac n cheese in hand. He cringed and then ate his lunch quickly, hurried and went upstairs to put a hoodie and shoes on, then went downstairs to where the cousins were sitting in the living room.

Those kids were brats, the last time he had dealt with them. Here he goes. Curse Bill Rephic. "Alright, kids, we're going shopping for presents." he tried to put it as simple as he could.

The girl with the shoulder-length auburn hair scowled at him and sighed loudly. "Fine."

The boy with the short auburn hair smiled gratefully at him. "Hi, Dipper! Thank goodness, I'm bored!" He grabbed his sister's hand and dragged her toward Dipper.

Ah, Madison and Jacob. One incredibly rude, and the other pleasant and agreeable. Can you guess which personality goes to which twin? Yeah.

He realized it would be rude if he didn't get something for Bill, Bill was his guest anyway, it didn't matter if he hated him or not. He quickly yelled to Bill who sat on the couch again,"What do you want?"

Bill replied, "a billion bucks!"

Dipper sighed and hauled his messenger bag over his shoulder and took Stan's keys, and walked out the door with the two kids.

They all got in the car, Madison still glaring at him, and Dipper turned in his seat to them and said,"Alright, no peaking at your Christmas presents when we get them!" At that, it earned him an ' _okay_!' and an ' _ugh_ '.

Dipper and the kids buckled up, started the car, and were ready to go.

Soon, they reached Target. Dipper sighed as he went through the mental list in his head. He rubbed his eyes as he and the kids got out of the car, Madison had been trying to pick fights with Jacob that whole time.

They'd reached the front of the store but Jacob climbed on one of the red balls in the front outside. Dipper rubbed his temple and growled,"You're eleven, do you really need to do that?"

The little boy slid off. "Sorry, cousin Dipper!" He ran to Madison's side, who just turned her nose to the air and scoffed.

Once they got in, Dipper immediately found what he needed: a new purse for his mother. She'd had her current one for years, it's a miracle it hadn't fallen apart yet.

Next, he got grill cleaner for his dad, a waffle maker for his uncle, and the alien keychain for Ford. He quickly paid for them. Relieved, he turned back to the kids—

The space behind him was empty. The kids were no where in sight. He grabbed his bag with the stuff in them and rushed out of the cashier isle and called for them. And yet no answer, or little laughs. He didn't know whether to be surprised or not.

He shook his head and went from isle to isle, checking the one dollar section, all the clothes sections, the toy sections, the electronic stations.

It was like they'd disappeared. He squeezed his mouth and eyelids shut, opening them after a second. He just has to be calm. He hadn't searched the whole store yet.

He was nearing the party isles when he heard giggling. Confident it was them, Dipper jogged over to the source of the laughing which had come from the cards isle.

Yep, Madison and Jacob were snickering at the cards and all that, particularly a card that read _is that a candy cane in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?_ "Kids!" snapped Dipper, marching angrily toward them, snatching the card out of Madison's hands(which had earned him a glare). "I've been looking all over for you! We were _just_ about to leave!"

Jacob had looked really taken aback by that. "I'm really sorry, cousin Dipper! Madison said that you would take a long time checking out so we wanted to pass the time."

Dipper flashed him a look. "It only took about a minute and a half, and you shouldn't have listened to her anyway! Have you ever heard of peer pressure?" he turned his gaze to Madison. "And you! I only bought like, four things, you knew it wouldn't have taken long, you were only looking for trouble."

Madison pouted at him. "I was so bored!" she stomped her foot and looked away.

Dipper scoffed at her. "You're eleven, not six." He ushered them out of the store. "You two should _stay with me._ You should know how to be responsible enough, you're almost in sixth grade!"

Jacob sighed as he got in the backseat of the car. He never looked or chatted with his sister during the whole ride to Hobby Lobby.

  
The Hobby Lobby trip seemed bearable enough so far. He got the few glittery notebooks for his sister, along with a new phone case with a bunch of cats on it. He also got Pacifica some purple bedroom stickers and a little matching pillow she might like.

He got the rest of his relatives something from there, too, and the kids something. He bought all of them and put them in the bag before they saw.

As Dipper went to get Madison and Jacob from where they were in the toy section, he saw a rack with _CLEARANCE_ written in big, bold letters on a sign above the rack. It was full of clothes—t-shirts, pants, shorts, dresses, hoodies.

But then a certain hoodie caught his eye. What was almost at the end of the rack was a light yellow hoodie with black stripes at the bottom of it, near the hem.

 _Hm, a Christmas present for Bill wouldn't hurt._ He thought as he took the hangar, payed for it, and went to look for the kids.

What he saw was devastating.

There Madison sat on the ground, arms crossed and eyes focused on the Barbie toy in front of her, and Jacob sitting on his knees not far from her with tears streaming down his face. "Cousin Dipper," he called to him. "She won't play with me."

The two twins who always had shared interests with, shared toys, shared friendships, shared _everything_ — sat in front of him just torn apart.

It reminded himself of him and Mabel. When summer was coming to an end, when Dipper accepted Ford's invitation to be his apprentice, when his sister ran out of the house _sobbing_ because of what _he_ had said to her, when _it_ had happened—

Dipper forced a smile upon his face as he pulled Jacob up. "Hey. It's fine, we're about to leave anyway." he turned to Madison. "Time to go. You two can play later at the house. Maybe you could bake for us! Cousin Mabel would be so happy if you'd do that."

Madison and Jacob's faces lit up at the mention of Mabel. "Cousin Mabel!" They chorused, grabbing both of Dipper's hands and hauling ass to the car.

They walked so fast, Dipper was afraid he'd trip over their feet as they dragged him on.

  
It was 7 PM by the time they got home, they had McDonald's on the way back.

In the driveway, he saw a fancy ass car. Happily presuming it was Pacifica's, he quickly parked on the side of the road, grabbed the shopping bags, unlocked the door, put the bags down, and was tackled into a big ol bear hug.

"Dipper!" cried Mabel, squeezing him.

He awkwardly pulled back. "Geez, sis, it's only been a day." He smiled at Pacifica, who was behind his sister.

" _Cousin Mabel_!" The kids whizzed past him and latched onto Mabel.

"Woah, there!" Mabel laughed, who almost knocked off if her feet. She looked at Dipper and Pacifica with a pleading look, as if to say _get them off of me!!_ Dipper and Pacifica laughed and shrugged.

"Cousin Mabel!" hollered Jacob joyously. "Madison and me want to bake cookies!"

Mabel's grin turned into a serious frown as she shrugged the twins off of her. She gripped both of their shoulders, almost painfully it looked like. "Guys. Guys. We're gunna feed the whole world cookies! _Let's go!_ " She grabbed Pacifica's wrist and ran with the kids into the kitchen.

Dipper chuckled as he put his Grunkle's keys back on the shelf and grabbed the bags, putting them on the dining room table, and getting the wrapping supplies.

He would never get all these presents wrapped before tonight, where everyone would see them. Hm, he knew Grunkle Ford was picking up the grandparents at the airport right now, his parents were at work, Mabel was baking cookies with the kids, Stan was doing his weirdo man business, that leaves...

No.

He sighed. But he would never wrap them up in time. He went into the living room where Bill was, who was sitting comfortably on the couch, fiddling with his phone while it was on the charger.

Dipper crossed his arms over his chest. "C'mon, Bill, you're going to help me wrap up the Christmas presents."

Bill didn't look up. "Can't someone else do it with you, kid? I'm busy here."

"Obviously you're not busy. Everyone else is, though." He gestured to the giggling coming from the kitchen.

Bill scoffed, waving lazily at him. "I can assure you, I am. I know I'm always a hoot to hang out with, though. Maybe later."

Dipper scowled, walking up to Bill and taking his phone out of his hands. The blond immediately jumped up and reached for his phone, which Dipper had out of reach. He turned the damn thing off and crossed his arms again.

Bill looked around wildly until finally giving in. "Fine."

  
The rest of the afternoon consisted of enjoying Mabel and the kid's cookies(with Paz's help) and arguing every now and then with Bill for stuff that presumably mattered. They would argue about the stupidest things.

As Dipper lay in bed that night, he could only think about how he could just only smash Bill's face in in under three seconds, considering that Bill was sleeping on the air bed right that moment, three feet away from him, sleeping oh so peacefully.

Dipper sighed as he pulled his blanket to his chin. He would do that later. Too tired.

  
That night, he dreamed. He dreamed of the power-hungry world-destructing demon chasing after him and his sister. Dipper flinched as those huge fingers tried to swallow him in his grip. He jumped out of the way, instinctively bringing Mabel to his side.

  The adrenaline was suffocating, sweat glittered his hot face as he ran and ran and ran for his life. The demon behind him seemed to be getting closer every single step.

_"When I get my hands on you kids, I'm going to disassemble your molecules!"_

Dipper wanted to cry, to scream, to yell back at him,"You'll never catch us, Cipher!" but he knew that if he would slow his steps only a little, he would surely die in Bill Cipher's hands.

  That's just the thing: Dipper's steps were becoming slower. Mabel pulled her arm around his waist as she pulled the trigger of her grappling hook, hauling them upwards.

Just as he was going to catch them, Bill missed. His growl seemed to shake the earth. " _You've tricked me for the last time!"_

Dipper released a breath as Mabel set them onto land. But Cipher was coming for them. They made a run for it, but they had reached a dead end. His pants became quick and shallow, they were going to—

Mabel smiled determinedly and pulled the height-altering flashlight from her sweater pocket. "As Grunkle Stan always says: when one door closes," she made her hand 50 times bigger,"choose a nearby wall and bash it in with brute force!" She grunted as she punched the wall, making a decent sized hole to escape out from. She shrunk her hand back to its original size.

Dipper gazed pro **u** dly at her sister. "Ha! Now let's round of the townsfolk and together we can defeat—oh no!" His blood turned cold as he watched a few of his friends, townsfolk, and the forest creatures getting terrorized by monsters.

"Oh no..." Dipper muttered.

Suddenly, a bright yellow-hued light boomed behind the twins. The floor disappeared from beneath Dipper's feet as he was lifted into the air.

" _Peak-a-boo!_ "

  
Dipper awoke in a cold sweat. He looked to his clock on the nightstand, which read 4:18.

There was no way he was going back to sleep.


	5. GBD WKUHH

"Grandpa Shermy is here!" Dipper's mother called up the stairs, which had woken the adult up.

Dipper groggily sat up and swung his feet over the bed. He yawned and stood up, but then he realized he'd stepped on Bill's hand, which was hanging off the mattress. The blond immediately jumped awake. He blinked and glared at his hand, then cradled it under his chest. "Fuckin'..." he mumbled.

Dipper snickered as he was pulled fully awake by the sudden accident. "Bill, sorry dude," but he kept laughing.

Bill sniffed. "No, you're not," and turned over on his side and went back to sleep with a deep sigh.

 _Yeah, it's pretty funny,_ Dipper thought with a small chuckle, then hurried downstairs.

It was pretty easy to find Grandpa Shermy in the mix of people in the living room. The man sat by his younger brothers, who were Stan and Ford. He laughed along with the others, yet a little unsurely, about a joke that Stan told them about "aims getting better", or something like that.

Shermy wore an olive-green vest over a long-sleeved white shirt and khaki shorts. "Grandpa Shermy!" Dipper called.

"Dipper!" He called in his usual aged voice, much unlike the Grunkles, who still sounded the same from those years ago. He stood up and pulled him into a hug. He pulled away after a moment. "Where's your sister?" He asked.

Dipper shrugged. "Probably upstairs sleeping." Mabel really liked to sleep in, much like Dipper.

Shermy laughed light-heartedly. He waved an aged hand towards the kitchen. "Your Grandma Camila is in there, she has a little something to give you!"

Dipper scoffed cheerily. He gave a side-look at his Grunkles and found them actually talking. Christmas is truly a magical time.

And so with that, Dipper walked into the kitchen with his lightened heart.

There he found his Grandma sitting at the little table they had in there next to the cousins. They looked like they were drawing a picture for her.

Grandma Camila's eyes lit up with joy as he saw Dipper at the door. "Oh, sweetheart!" She sat up squeezed him into a hug. _So...tight,_ he thought. The kids sneered at that. Camila smelled like those strawberry candies that spawn in old ladies' bags.

She finally pulled away and looked him over, as he did her. She was the same from over the years. She had a white dress on with a jean jacket thrown over her, which had little flowers sewn into it at random patterns.

Her wrinkly face crinkled as she smiled at him. "Oh, I've missed you so much, my little Mason!" Dipper cringed inwardly at his name, but he kept smiling. She finally let go of his shoulders and put her hands together in front of her chest.

Her eyes suddenly flickered in realization, and then she pulled something out of her purse that was still over her shoulder. She gave him a 20 dollar bill.

She winked at him as he took it. "Buy whatever you want with that, sugar." She walked out of the kitchen and into he living room at that.

The brunet turned toward the kids, who were still snickering at him. Dipper sighed through his nose and pocketed the money.

"What a grandma, huh?" Dipper jumped as Bill snuck up behind him. The kid's booming, shrill laughter filled his ears and he recoiled.

Dipper glared at him and walked to the pantry. He opened it and grabbed a granola bar. "When did _you_ get up?" He sneered at him.

Bill's grin faltered a little. "After your sister barged into the room and told me that we're all going out for lunch," he rubbed his eyes. "I just really want to sleep, but I gotta do what I gotta do." He reached in the pantry and grabbed a granola bar as well.

Dipper narrowed his eyes. "And that is?"

"Making sure I stay with you as much as I can, I am your guest after all." He went and sat at on of the white chairs at the island.

"Is pestering me anytime you can your entire goal this break?" The brunet growled.

"No," Bill hummed as he took a bite out of his granola bar.

Dipper sighed as he closed the pantry. "Well, if you set the house on fire, I'll be in the shower."

The cousins at the table immediately went to the island and sat by Bill, asking questions like,"do you have a girlfriend?" and,"do you have a job? Where do you work?" Dipper was glad he wasn't the victim at this moment.

On the way to his room, he found Pacifica, who was still in her pajamas. She was presumably walking downstairs for some breakfast. "Hey," he greeted.

Pacifica lifted her dark blue eyes from her phone and smiled at him. "Hi, Dipper!" She walked a few steps passed him then stopped abruptly to turn to him. "Oh, and by the way, we're going to a diner in a few hours, so be ready!" She continued her walk down the stairs, leaving a tiny trail of glitter, probably because she slept in Mabel's room and she has an unnatural amount of glitter in that abyss.

Dipper chuckled at that thought as he walked inside the bathroom to get ready for the day.

  
Dipper was sitting patiently on the couch after a shower and his regular morning activities. Everyone else were just doing whatever, the majority of them were out to eat. Mabel, Pacifica, and the nuisance, Bill were still getting ready.

He let his thoughts wonder to his dreams. They started occurring when he got home. But why? He hadn't even had one thought of the triangle ever since a year after _it_ happened.

The _Never Mind All That Act_ had really actually worked on the small town of Gravity Falls, and the town was starting to go back to their weird-norm again.

Dipper squinted at the carpet. _He_ wouldn't know anything. Bill Cip **h** er was defeated. He _is_ defeated.

...right?

Dipper jumped a little as someone plopped onto the far end of the couch. Rephic. The brunet immediately relaxed as he realized he wasn't going to threaten him in any way.

Dipper huffed as Bill pulled out his phone out of his jeans pocket. Wouldn't he be in the mood for actually get on his nerves like he always did in his free time?

He thought about the time he first met him back in college. It was the first year, and Bill was in almost all of his classes, even though he doesn't really have a passion for writing or anything that he is in to, and decided to tease him from day one. The first time wasn't even verbal.

Dipper had just been doodling during lunch by his friends that day, with Wendy and Robbie out of college, they usually visited him and Mabel during their lunchtime. And then there was Bill, at the table across from theirs, was glaring him down. Dipper didn't know why he was doing so, but Bill had been sitting alone at that table. The Dipper then would have felt sorry for him. Now, he doesn't.

The teasing and fighting never even got physical. Always verbal. Just enough for Dipper to hate the guy's guts. He didn't even know a lot about the guy.

"You seem to be glaring a hole in the carpet, Pines." Speaking of Bill, the blond leaned forward slightly from his side of the couch.

Dipper blinked at him. "I'm not," he denied, fiddling with his hands. "I'm just thinking about the assignment," he lied.

Bill finally leaned back after a moment, and crossed his arms. "Sure," he simpered. "I'm going to figure you out sooner or later, Pines."

Before Dipper could ask what he meant, Pacifica waltzed down the stairs in her definition of casual wear. A short violet dress with a belt around her waist and a darker jacket over it, black leggings, and a pair of boots.

Pacifica looked over the boys for a second. "Move over, _Bill_ , I want to sit down, too."

To Dipper's dismay, the blond settled next to him instead of the other side of the couch. Pacifica shrugged, sat down, and took out her phone.

There was only so much room. Dipper dared a side glance at Bill, who was splayed out beside him. He was only inches from touching him.

Deciding to actually say something, Dipper inquired,"What's taking Mabel so long?"

As if surprised, Pacifica looked at him then shrugged again. "Probably doing make-up."

 _Mabel never wears make-up, though_ , Dipper thought. _Whatever_.

"Guys! I'm ready to go!" Came Mabel. She scurried down the stairs with her casual wear as well. She paused before them, stretching out her leg. "Okay, okay, I just shaved my legs. Now feel them if you want food."

Dipper scoffed at her before patting her leg and standing up for the door. Mabel pouted behind him. "Good enough," she dismissed as she head to the door herself, Pacifica and Bill behind.

Before they got to Pacifica's car, Dipper shouted," _I call shotgun!_ " And he got in and buckled before everyone else. Sighing in relief, he snuggled into the seat. Wow, it was so comfortable. It smelled of lavender.

Mabel got in beside him and started the car. Pacifica stopped in her tracks in front of the car and glared at Bill. "Wait, I have to sit by _him_?" She jerked her head toward him to illustrate her point, her blonde hair sliding over her shoulder at the movement.

Dipper shrugged and made no comment. Mabel just covered her smile with her hand and started the car. "Just get in, girl! Besides, Dipper will have to deal with him the rest of the two weeks."

Dipper nodded. "Yeah—wait _what?_ "

Bill smiled innocently at Pacifica as she reluctantly sat in a seat. "Don't worry, Blondie! I don't bite."

Pacifica just sat her purse between them in the middle seat. "Just—my car, my rules, alright? Rule one: Bill Rephic is not allowed to talk unless we are all about to die. Got it?"

Bill crossed his arms and legs and smiled snidely at her. "Why are you so obsessed with me?"

Pacifica didn't answer him and patted Dipper's shoulder. "Good luck, Dip. I'll make sure he won't bite your head off during the ride."

Dipper pursed his lips. "Great, thanks."

Mabel blew a raspberry at them and shouted," _Everyone, be quiet, and enjoy the ride! Woo!"_

  
At last, they reached the diner. It felt forever, since Bill didn't obey Pacifica's number one " _rule_ ".

They took a booth with Dipper sitting next to Mabel, and Pacifica next to Bill, to her dismay. Sat as far away from him as possible. Bill didn't notice or didn't care.

Bill got out his phone and took a few selfies and sent them to his friends. Maybe bragging about how much he loves aggravating the latter.

Dipper was lost in his thoughts once again. Bill was chatting along happily with Mabel and Pacifica, or at least that was what it looked like.

The next thing he knew, he blinked and his hand was linked with another's. Black and scrawny. Cold, blue fire engulfed their arms.

"So, what puppet are you going to pick, anyway?" He asked the demon in front of him.

The triangle put a finger under his eye and looked up in concentration. "Mm, let's see. Eeny, meeny, miney," his large, slitted eye immediately turned crimson red and locked his gaze onto the brunet. " _You_."

The boy gasped as he tried to pull away from him. " _What?_ " Before he knew what he was about to do, he felt excruciating pain _everywhere_ , like he was being ripped apart inside and out.

Except that was exactly the case right now.

He gasped and his panic-stricken voice cried,"W-what's happening? _What did you do to my body?_ "

Dipper Pines could only watch as Bill Cipher rose in his body and roared,"Sorry, kid, but you're _my_ puppet now!" He laughed wickedly and threw the computer that was sitting peacefully on the window seat and onto the floor with a _crash!_

And crushed it to pieces with his foot.

" _Dipper, what's wrong! Dipper?_ "

Dipper blinked open his eyes and looked around wildly. Mabel stopped shaking him and put her arms at her sides. Pacifica and Bill stared at him with shock. The people staring at them returned to their own business.

Dipper squeezed his eyes shut then opened them back up again. "Sorry, Mabes, I-I just fell asleep and had a nightmare, that's all." He smiled at her for reassurance.

Mabel didn't look convinced. "That wasn't just a dream, Dipper," she told him levelly. "You kept muttering the word 'no', and then you started shaking."

The brunet waved a hand at her. "Like I said, it's fine. Only a nightmare."

His sister nodded grimly, and held his hand. She then resumed the conversation with Pacifica and Bill. He heard some words like,"mall"," and,"drive-in", and nothing else, really.

Where do these nightmares keep coming from? He looked around the diner, finding something to look at. Then his eyes rested on some bold, yellow wording by the door. It said," _come again!_ " Except the dot in the " _i_ " was a triangle.

A big, fat, yellow triangle.

His breath quickened and he squeezed Mabel's hand harshly without meaning to. She immediately broke out of the conversation again to look at him. "Bro, are you sure you're okay?" Her brown eyes glittered with worry.

Dipper let go of her hand as a waitress went over to them. He gave her an easy smile. "I was just thinking about Gravity Falls," he lied. He did miss it. They would go back during the last couple of days, though.

His sister smiled sadly at him. "Don't worry, bro, we'll be back in no time!"

The waitress shot them a fake smile and gave a practiced,"Hello, everyone! Would you like anything to drink before you order?"

Once they all got what they wanted to drink written down, she eyed the twins. "Are you two siblings?" She asked Dipper and Mabel.

Mabel smiled proudly and punched Dipper in the shoulder, in which he winced. "Yup, Mystery Twins, that's us!" The latter stuck out his tongue playfully out at her.

"Awesome!" The waitress now looked to Pacifica and Bill as she put her notepad on her pocket. "You two look like you're twins as well."

Pacifica immediately lurched forward as she pretended to throw up. "Oh, God, no!" She protested, while Bill smiled successfully.

The waitress chuckled a little at her outburst. "Your drinks will be out in a moment, you four!" She now retreated behind the counter.

"Dipper Pines," Pacifica gasped out. "You and me are switching places right now. I can't handle another second with this imbecile." She picked up her purse and stood up.

Dipper sighed as Mabel let him get out. "Now you know how I will feel everyday." They both now sat down.

The blonde girl cringed. "Well, maybe just because of this, I will give you five dollars a day to make you feel any better about this."

"I'm right here, you know, Pines." Bill deadpanned beside him.

  
The four finally made it back home alive, and now Mabel and Pacifica decided to babysit Bill while Dipper gladly accepted some of his own "Dipper Time."

In the car earlier, they had decided to watch the live-action version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas at some drive-in place.

Dipper sighed as he pulled his computer out of his bag and began typing the of intro of their assignment project. He knew that Bill wouldn't work on this, even though he a actually did help him plan it. Bill would just focus on the actual _break_ instead of the homework.

Besides, Dipper was cool with that. He didn't want Bill hanging over his shoulder anyway. He wasn't even sure why he was in a creative writing class if he didn't enjoy it.

Getting to a good stopping point, he made sure he saved it and finally closed his computer shut. Checking his phone to make sure it was actually time, which it was, he made his way to the door.

He opened it, and an unexpected light and wetness showered his eyes and head. He grunted in annoyance as he was showered in yellow glitter and water. Looking up, he saw that a net full with water balloons of this mess were hanging above his door.

" _Rephic!_ "

They all went out for dinner before the movie started, and right now they went to the field early to get a front spot for the movie. They now sit in the open trunk with a bunch of snacks to bear, and their radio station on.

Pacifica grimaced at the other people that started to arrive, a bunch of hippies and little kids. It was kind of like the Woodstick Festival back in Gravity Falls.

There were thankfully much less talking than Dipper had expected, he's never been to a drive-in movie before.

Mabel gave Dipper a questioning look as they began to get comfortable. Dipper looked down and realized that the glitter Bill pranked him with earlier showed easily in the dimming light.

Dipper sighed and jerked his head toward Bill, who was sitting next to him, bouncing like a bored little kid.

Mabel nodded as she laughed. The movie was finally starting.

When the movie ended and they were driving home, Bill finally spoke up,"Why did the Grinch earn their trust so easily? And how did he change so fast?"

Mabel joined in,"Because Christmas truly is a magical holiday."

Dipper scoffed. " _No_ , it was because when the Grinch stole all the presents, all the Whos realized that they should be thankful for each other, and not all the presents. That made him emotional and stuff and the Whos accepted him because they were happy that they were able to change him. Obviously." He waved a lazy hand at them.

Bill smirked. "That's some real cheesy shit, Pines," he paused and his smirk dropped. "I still don't get it."

All the inhabitants in the car except one groaned in unison.

That night, Dipper lie awake in bed, trying to rest his tired mind. Bill's constant fidgeting on the air bed beside him was bothering him. "Dude, can you chill out?" He finally asked him.

"Can I sleep in your bed tonight?"

Dipper was caught off guard. He didn't expect that answer. "And why would I let you do that?" He turned to his side tp stare at the latter, who was already looking at him with those hazel eyes.

Bill frowned. "Because I'm cold and I thought I saw something move. Move over," he demanded, standing up.

Dipper sighed and obeyed. He was too exhausted for this. He scooted over to the far side of the bed. He felt Bill get in and draped the blanket over him. The blond sighed contently.

Dipper couldn't help but ask,"Feeling alright?"

Bill nodded tiredly. "Yeah, I'm fine, kid. Just go to sleep."

Dipper glared at the wall in front of him. That's what he had just told him. _Whatever. Too tired_. He finally drifted off into the sea of darkness.

He didn't dream of demons. No trace of the yellow triangle. No mystery or problems. Just dreamt of a cloudy day with snowflakes falling endlessly down to the snow-covered ground, and satisfyingly melting onto the grass.


	6. GDB IRXU

Dipper groggily woke up to the wall reflecting the light of the sun and into his eyes. _I should have closed the curtains,_ he countered. But then he realized he felt an extra warmth on his back...he didn't remember putting a pillow there last night.

He tried to turn around to put the pillow back by his head, but he staggered as he woke up fully when he saw not a pillow at his side-but _Bill_ snuggled next to him.

He yelped as Bill mumbled something he couldn't decipher in his sleep and slung his arm over Dipper's waist tightly and held him close. He'd never wanted to be this close to him. _Ever_.

Forever later, his face was on fire as Bill finally woke up and rubbed his eyes. He let out a breath of relief-he could finally breathe when Bill released him. Bill put his palms between his head and the pillow and looked at the boy in front of him. "Mm, good morning, Pines." He closed his eyes again and snuggled under the covers.

Dipper stared at him. A few minutes later, he broke out of his trance and tried getting out of bed with out touching the older. _I'm never letting him sleep next to me again, however tired I am_ , he vowed as he ran out of the room and took a cold shower.

  
Done getting ready for the day, Mabel jumped on him with a battle cry in a flash of red and green. " _Dipper! We're decorating for Christmas! RIGHT NOW!_ " Dipper chuckled as he saw Pacifica come out of the room where Mabel exploded from, looking exhausted.

"Mabel, calm down!" He protested against her with a smile. He let her down to the floor gently.

Mabel was bouncing on her toes. "C'mon, bro!" She pulled his hand down the stairs and he had to steady himself so he wouldn't fall. Pacifica followed silently behind with a laugh. "Everyone's already started." She took him to the kitchen where a billion craft supplies were laid out on the tables and counters. He felt his artistic juices working in his mind.

His sister forced him into a chair and threw white printer paper at him and a pair of scissors. Pacifica sat on the other side of the table with clear ornaments and random tiny, plastic, green trees, fake grass, and other things next to her.

She left the room, and a few moments later, in came the Stans and Bill. She sat them down in chairs at the table and (very dangerously) threw random crafts supplies at them. After a moment, she stomped to the table with the most serious look on her face.

"Alright, friends, family. We are gathered here today to make the best Christmas decorations _ever_. This is _serious_ business." She dragged her gaze along everyone at the table slowly-Dipper shivered. Mabel scared him when she was this downbeat and down to business. "This Christmas is going to be the best one yet, and only _we_ are going to make that work. _Stan!_ "

Stanley jumped at his name being called. "You're on streamer duty!" Stan nodded **q** uickly before standing up abruptly to gather the different streamers on the counter.

Mabel announced that Dipper was on snowflake duty-as inferred from the paper she threw at him- , Pacifica was on ornaments, Ford is buying the tree (with specific orders from her), Bill was doing the wreaths (to his complaints, Mabel just silently told him off with a glare), and she would do the baking and the food for tonight.

Dipper wasted no time to hang around and took the scissors in his hand and folded his paper. _Paper cuts, here I come!_ He had this weird talent for making paper snowflakes and could make endless designs of them, big or small.

He sa **w** Bill getting his supplies and sitting next to him in his peripheral vision. The blond had his arms stuffed with random streamers and stickers and glitter and other things. He also had three wreaths hanging around his left arm. He plopped it all on the table and sighed as he sat down.

Dipper stole a look at him but then continued carefully cutting shapes. "You sure you got that all?" He asked with a mocking smile.

Rephic scoffed. He waved a lazy hand toward Dipper's two stacks of printer paper. "You sure you can do all that until dinner tonight?"

The nineteen-year-old smirked. "Clearly, you underestimate my power." He unfolded the finished snowflake and slapped it down to the table to make his point. He grabbed another piece of paper and started folding it.

"Hm..." Bill hummed in concentration as he weaved a red, green, and white streamer around one of the large wreaths. "Maybe if you're so _good_ , you should make a few of those for my wreaths."

Dipper paused his cutting and turned to Bill. "Fine. Only if you will help me hang and tape at least a couple hundred of these around the house."

Bill grinned and held out his hand. "Deal," They shook on it and resumed working, tapping their feet to the music in the background and breathing in the smell of peppermint and cookie dough.

 

  
Around two hours later, Dipper had made a three foot hill of those snowflakes, and Bill was halfway through his third wreath. The blond would have to do even more later- Mabel wanted a wreath on _every_ door. Her plan was for the snowflakes to act as icicles on the ceiling and the rest to be taped on the wall or the entertainment center and all that. Bill had decided to take a break from weaving and took an armful of snowflakes and  a ladder to the hallway by the kitchen and living room.

  
Dipper was about to fall asleep. The Christmas music would only get him jazzed so far, and the warmth in the kitchen was making him too comfortable. Stan was somewhere in the house doing white and red and green streamers. Ford was out, and Pacifica did her ornaments on the couch and coffee table in the living room.

He was about to take a short nap until red and green glitter showered his face. "Rise and shine, Pines!" Ugh. A hand nudged his shoulder. "Your sister's gonna kill us if we take breaks like this."

Dipper looked up at Bill, scowling as he brushed the glitter off. He was about to say something until Pacifica sighed and put a finished ornament in a basket. "Hearing you two arguing is insufferable." She stood up and put the basket on the counter. Convo done.

Dipper glared at Bill and threw a snowflake into his finished pile. This arguing will get them nowhere, he concluded. It never got them anywhere. Why did Bill always tease him? He had no recollection of him doing anything bad to the guy back.

 _Weird_. Mabel told him sometimes that giving him the attention he needs is encouraging him to do it even more. Dipper always thought that if he tried to defend himself, he'd go away. But no avail.

Yeah, maybe he _should_ try and ignore him and be nice to Bill. He's had enough enemies in his life, such as the monsters from Gravity Falls, the weirdness that followed him home, and the jerks from school.

Now that he thinks of it, Bill isn't really a jerk, just annoying. He never even touched him, except maybe knocking his books down when he shoves him sometimes and when he trips him at random.

He paused his cutting when a certain thought came to mind. Then he shook his head with a silent laugh. _No_ , that could _not_ be the case. That was the number one thing that wasn't the reason for why Bill always annoys him.

Speaking of the latter, a certain blond popped his head up. "Why'd you stop cutting?" He asked him. He paused his weaving—he looked almost done with his eighth wreath.

Dipper shrugged. " **I** dunno, I just realized something." He answered truthfully. Yeah, maybe he _should_ try and become friends with Bill? That's what Mabel would want. He was tired of fighting as well.

Bill grinned. "And what was it that you just realized?"

Dipper frowned. _Never mind_. He resumed cutting the paper along his drawn lines and replied,"That you're an idiot." _Nice one, Pines._

Bill put his hand to his chest and gave him a look that feigned offended hurt. " _Me?_ " That pleased grin was plastered over his face again as he reached for one of Dipper's snowflakes to glue onto the wreath. "If anything, I would say _you're_ the idiot because you've been making to same shaped snowflake for ten minutes now."

Dipper down looked at his pile and realized Bill was right. How tired _was_ he? Whatever. Dipper continued on the snowflakes. His thoughts shifted elsewhere.

He'd never heard anything of Bill's side of the story. Bill was the one who always asked those annoying questions about him. And he already knows a lot now, by the fact that he is inside Dipper's house for Christmas.

Wouldn't Bill want to spend the holidays with his own folks instead of his? Like, the guy always had straight A's, maybe a B, but he always had acted like he was raised by mad wolves or played pranks on every professor or something (which he probably did...).

All he knew was that he has parents. Or one. And a brother, who was apparently his twin; Mabel tried to gather shade on him once and looked into the computers (and gathered absolutely none) and told him. How come Dipper's never seen him before? Aside from all the annoying him thing, why hadn't Bill told Dipper about his _twin_ at any given time? There were plenty of ways he could have brought that up—Dipper talks about Mabel all the time, "enemy" or not.

"What's your brother's name?" He heard himself ask. He gave himself a mental slap. _Ugh, I didn't mean to ask that!_

Bill stiffened. He blinked and straightened in his chair. "I—I never told you about my brother." He murmured skeptically.

Dipper found himself saying,"What is his name?" He probably knows him from one of his classes, or bumped into him in the hall or something.

"His name is Will, but none of this is any of your concern." Bill replied snidely, continuing hot gluing the snowflakes, a silent way of saying, _'Conversation over, or you'll get slapped.'_

"Alright." Bill was right, it was none of his concern. But questions kept popping up in his mind, like: _does he look like you? Is he in one of our classes? What is he like? Would Mabel like him?_

Dipper bit his lip to keep himself from asking them. Awkward silence covered both of them like a thick, warm blanket.

Mabel thankfully ran up behind them and put a tray of warm cookies between them. "Just in case you're hungry! 'Kay, bye!"

Dipper smiled gratefully at her and took a cookie, biting into it. It tasted like home.

He took another piece of paper and drew a different design on it this time. He absentmindedly drew a pine tree. He drew random stars next to it, representing his sister. He didn't even realize he'd drawn those things until he was in the middle of cutting.

Dipper smiled warmly at the memory of the Mystery Shack. They were going back for a day or two at the last few days of winter break. Soos and Melody were there. They were _married_ now...Dipper and Mabel went to their wedding when they were 15. The two were taking care of Waddles currently. Dipper didn't want to admit it, but he missed the lil fella.

He finished gingerly cutting the shapes out and smoothly pushed them into the trash can next to him, then unfolded the paper.

He knew that this was already his favorite snowflake. He decided to put it into a separate pile for safekeeping, for when he finds a special place to put it.

Lunch passed, and then came dinner. It was snowing outside, which was perfect for the aesthetic of the night. They successfully put up the snowflakes on the ceiling and just random places—which turned out amazing. They put Bill's finished wreaths on almost every door. Stan's streamers covered the sides of the tv and edges of the ceiling.

Ford took Stan's truck to get the Christmas tree Mabel wanted. It took him two hours to get the exact one—but it was worth it, because it stood out beautifully in front of the window in the living room, with white lights around it and the ornaments that Pacifica made, along with Stan's streamers and Dipper's snowflakes and some other random ornaments.

They all sat around the dining room table, Christmas music playing softly in the background. The lights were all out and there were candles around to set the Christmasy mood. Little lights graced the walls and Dipper's snowflakes hung loosely from the ceiling.

The cousins sat next to each other, both of their parents next to them with Mabel and Dipper's father, and Ford at the end. At the other end of the table, sat Stan. Dipper sat next to him then Bill, Mabel and Pacifica, with Dipper and Mabel's mother sitting next to her. The grandparents sat on either side as well.

Dipper cringed at the way the table was made made Bill and Dipper sit closer than ever together. He hummed along to the music and tapped his finger on the table along to the beat. Everyone was talking to each other except the two. They had nothing to say.

The Pines twins' mother stood up and clapped twice. "Alright, Pines family, it's time to say grace," she sat back down and grasped Ford and Pacifica's hand. "Let's pray." The rest of the table held each other's hands, and Dipper held Stan's with no hesitation, but Bill...

Dipper glared at the blond and grasped his wrist instead. Bill just squeezed his wrist in turn. His mother began praying. Dipper opened an eye to look at Bill. He furrowed his brows as he saw sweat on Bill's temple. _I don't think it's that hot in here..._

Dipper shook it off and closed his eyes again and waited for it to conclude; he was never really the religious type. A moment later, Leah Pines wrapped it up sat back down. " _Let's eat!_ "

Bill let go of his wrist and stood up, gathering his food. Dipper strayed behind him, putting some ham on his plate. Ooh, and stuffing.

Now, it was the middle of the dinner and the Pines began to talk about their time in Gravity Falls—leaving out the bad stuff, of course.

"And then I said,' _shh, you had me at_ shut up, old man.'!" Stanley laughed as he finished his story. Mabel cringed and covered her eyes, turning Pacifica's way so Stan couldn't see. Dipper remembered that day—it was when he and his sister realized that they needed each other. He smiled at the memory.

Aunt Allison chuckled as she looked over Dipper. "Must have been quite the day for you!"

Dipper grimaced as he remembered the pain of braces when he was in his sister's body. "Haha, yeah." He got out.

Bill nudged his side. "What else happened in Gravity Falls? I don't hear about it a lot." He smirked as Dipper sagged in his seat.

 _That's because none of us liked you before_ , he wanted to shot back, but most of the table turned toward him as they waited for him to tell a story about the place.

Dipper blushed at the attention and cleared his throat. There weren't a lot of non-supernatural things they encountered and...non-world dominating...that happened there. "Well..." he pondered a moment. "Gravity Falls has its own holidays, like Halloween in summer." Me mentally slapped himself. Not a good day.

Mabel gasped. " _Remember Gorney?!_ " Everyone turned to her in confusion.

Dipper cringed as he remembered finally defeating the Trickster and the little boy immediately popping out of it. ' _I'm twamatized!_ ' "Yeah, definitely," he coughed.

Ford snorted when he took a sip of his drink. "I remember the time where I found you liked Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons," he smiled.

Grandpa Shermy scoffed. "Oh, I remember you going on and on about that stupid game when we were children."

Ford ignored his older brother. "And I remember after our..." he coughed into the crook of his arm," _game_ , I couldn't find one of the pieces from the board. I presumed that it probably went under the TV or something while we were playing, but it turned out I accidentally threw it away!"

The table laughed at the story.

He continued,"I looked in the trashcan, but it was not in there. And the final result is that I had to look through the trash _outside_..." He made a face. Everyone snickered and laughed as they imagined Ford digging into a disgusting trash bag. "And looking through multiple ones, I _finally_ found it. It was covered in all kinds of slop, but I found it. I'll never forget any we did during that day." He smiled warmly at the Pines twins and Stan, story obviously having more meaning to it.

Uncle Charles rubbed Madison's back, who almost looked like she was about to fall asleep. "Well, we are going to leave. The kids are getting tired."

Grandma Camilla was already asleep on Shermy's shoulder. "Yeah, we're gonna hit the hay, too. Good night, all!" Grandpa Shermy nudged her awake and waved by to everyone.

The parents said goodbye and went upstairs. Ford smiled at the rest of them. "Alright, you four. Go to bed, and Stan and I will take care of everything else." He took Stan's arm and dragged him to the kitchen, much to his complaints.

Pacifica yawned with a hand over her mouth. "Gotta sleep early for tomorrow. I don't want any bags under my eyes tonight," she winked at Mabel and walked up the stairs. Mabel blushed lightly and picked up her plates.

Dipper stood from his chair, Bill following. He drawled to Mabel,"Ooh, what was that about?" He singsonged. She always made fun of his crushes, why can't he do it back?

Mabel blushed even harder, looking away and going to the computer to turn off the music. "It was nothing! Yeah! Just go upstairs with Bill! Haha!" She glared at him.

Bill sauntered up to her side. "Looks like someone's in love!" He flicked one of bells that were dangling off of Mabel's headband.

Mabel whacked his hand away. "Whaaat? Pshh," she closed the computer. But then she whirled around and grabbed both of Bill and Dipper's sweater sleeves, both of them yelping in surprise. "If you two tell another soul about this, I will _murder_ you if our parents don't kill me first."

Bill glanced sympathetically at her. He made the motion of zipping his lips and throwing the key away. "It's safe with me."

Dipper kissed his sister's temple. "I'll make sure no one finds out," he promised. His parents were always against that kind of thing...

Mabel hugged both of them so hard they could barely breathe. "Oh, thank you guys so much!"

Bill wheezed out a breath. "N-no problem, Sweaters."

Mabel blinked at the name but released them anyway. "Alright, let's head to bed. 'm tired."

They both went upstairs and slept soundly, the snow brightly shining on the ground and a certain Bill Rephic snuggled next to another boy in a warm bed. 


	7. GDB ILYH

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: there may be a slight homophobia trigger warning. It's only for a small part of this chapter, though. 
> 
> Happy reading!

The sun woke Bill the next morning. He yawned and snuggled closer to Dipper. His heart leaped as he lay beside him. _Today was Christmas_.

He decided to go back to some more pleasurable sleep, but two certain kids barged into their room just then. They might as well knocked the door off of the hinges of how much _force_ they both put into pushing the door open.

" _Wake up, sleepyheads! It's_ Christmas!" The siblings shouted. The girl, Madison, ran into the room and grabbed Bill's arm. "Come on, hurry up! Get your _boyfriend_ up too!" Then the twins left.

Bill blushed at the term " _boyfriend._ " He got out from the bed and started to wake Dipper up anyway. "Hey, Pines, it's Christmas!" He rocked his shoulder. Dipper just smacked his hand and mumbled something undecipherable.

Bill smiled like the Cheshire cat. _Time to bring in the big guns._ He ran into the bathroom and covered his hands with cold water, making sure he's careful not to move his hands so much. He went back to the room, put his hands in front of the brunet's face and...

" _Bill!_ " Dipper sputtered as his face was now covered in the water that came from Bill wagging his hands like a maniac in front of his face. "Stop that," he demanded, knocking the covers away from him. "I'm up, I'm up!"

Bill just put on a clean shirt and left for downstairs.

He paused for a minute to admire Dipper's snowflakes on the ceilings, hanging like stalactites. It made the entire place have a winter-y, Christmas-y feel. It was so euphoric. It looked so beautiful with the windows open with the white light flowing inside, lighting up the snowflakes--

Something jabbed his side. "Let's go," Dipper raced passed him down the stairs, looking terribly excited for this holiday. _Looks like_ someone _woke up_ , Bill thought with a smirk. He **r** aced passed Bill down the stairs and smoothed his hair on the way down.

A whiz of purple passed him as well. Pacifica gripped her purple sweater around her while murmuring a string of curse words. Bill touched her shoulder. "Woah, drama queen, what got up _your_ ass?"

The blonde glared at him. She then rolled her blue eyes. "C'mon, Bill, Mabel's gonna be mad at us if we're not down in like, five seconds." She continued down the stairs as fast as a viper.

Bill followed and he paused at the bottom of the steps to smell the freshly baked cookies. He's never really celebrated Christmas before, or any holidays for that matter, so this was so foreign and exciting to him. _Carol of the Bells_ played from the stereo.

He saw the tree next-- the lights were lit up around it and there was star on top. It looked absolutely magnificent. Mabel sauntered over to him, gabbed his shoulders, and sat him on the couch next to Dipper. The brunet noticeably grimaced at that and moved over to make more room for himself. Bill smirked and rested his arms behind his head, relaxed.

He observed the surroundings around him. The tree was to the left of the couch and in front of the open windows. The rest of the family were seated around the Christmas tree as well—either on pillows or blankets. The kids were jumping up and down, clearly ready to open presents. Wait. _Presents_. Bill didn't buy anyone anything...

"Oh, shit," he said aloud, making Dipper jump beside him.

Dipper turned to him. "Bill, what's wrong?" His brows furrowed together.

Bill just shook his head. "No, it's stupid." _Ugh, I feel so_ bad _now. There's always tomorrow, anyway._

Dipper just gave him an incredulous look and turned back to where he was talking with Ford.

Mabel finally came into the room and clapped her hands twice, a camera around her neck. "Alright, peeps, it's time for the picture! You know the drill: kids in front, old people in the back," a _hey!_ from Stan,"Dipper, Paz, Bill and I in the middle." She set the camera on the stand.

Taking that as their cue, the family and Pacifica and Bill moved to the Christmas tree in the order Mabel told them. The brunette pressed a button and quickly joined the family, smiling. An audible _click!_ and a flash was heard and seen, and the kids let out sighs of relief.

Madison and Jacob's eyes were _glued_ onto the presents, ready to jump up and sprint over to it. Mrs. Pines turned to Mabel and she nodded. Jacob and Madison let out a _blood-curdling_ screech as they fought to death for their presents and opening them like animals.

The adults chuckled and talked to one another, _calmly_ getting their presents out from under the tree. Bill just went back to the couch—there was nothing for them there anyway. No one knew he was going to come.

He brought out his phone and put in the pass lock—oh, he would never get used to this new technology. He entertained himself by going on Snapchat, looking at what his " _friends_ " were doing. In school, he never really tolerated anyone, but he still needed a group of friends to hang out with and all that. It wasn't like he needed emotional support, or anything.

Someone poked his arm. Bill looked up from his phone and saw that it was Mabel. "What's up, Sweaters?" He put his phone back in his jeans pocket.

Dipper stood beside her, fiddling with his hands. Mabel smiled sheepishly at him. "Well," she said, bringing a colorful, wrapped box from around her back,"Dipper and I figured that you might not want to be left out."

Dipper just shot her a look that screamed, _I didn't_ figure _this_ , but didn't say anything.

Bill stared at her. Then Dipper. Then the present. He gently took it out of her hands and looked at the white paper with the red and green ribbon around it. He blinked up at them. "No one has...ever really given me anything before," he told him.

Dipper's eyes widened just a little bit, but returned to their natural state. Normal. Mabel just gasped silently and sat on the couch beside him. She put a hand on his shoulder. "With me, _no one_ is left out. Even you, Bill. Even though you can be snotty and annoying at times," a murmur of agreement from Dipper,"but I know that you can change. And I can see that you _have_ changed."

Bill smiled. "Thanks." Dipper sat next to his sister on the couch and they watched as Bill opened the present, not making any messes. He took the clean box and opened it, revealing a yellow sweater that had little gray dots around the collar. Bill furiously tried to blink away the stinging sensation from his eyes and put it on.

"Welcome to the Pines family, knucklehead." said Stanley from beside him.

*******

Dipper smiled contently at the dinner table, enjoying the warm and welcoming aroma of ham, buttered dinner rolls, mashed potatoes, and other things. The candles and family around him added to that as well.

He sat next to Mabel who sat next to Paz, but a certain Grandma Camilla chose to sit by _her_ , which left Dipper to sit next to Bill. Again.

Dipper sighed through his nose. He promised his sister earlier that morning that he wouldn't do this. He would always keep his promises to her. Always.

Right now, he was watching Stan and Grandpa Shermy argue from across the table. Ford was only just sitting next to Stanley, talking with Dipper's father though.

"Wait, _what_ did you do to Stanford's project in highschool? How did _I_ not hear about this?" Shermy was gaping at Stan, his wrinkly fists planted on the table. _Now_ Stanford was intrigued.

Stan guiltily looked away. "Okay, it was just an _accident_..." Ford shot him a look. "Okay, okay, fine! It _wasn't_ an accident! So—" as Stan began his and Ford's story (leaving out all of the _supernatural_ parts), Dipper began to space out and stare at the wall.

Bill was playing with his fork, picking at the dinner roll in front of him. Dipper wanted to tell him that it was rude to play with his food, but he didn't want to nag him any further. " _C'mon, Dip! Just at least_ try _to become friends with him. For me!_ "

"So, Dipper," Ford spoke to him, pulling Dipper out of his thoughts. "Do you have a girlfriend yet?" A couple of his family members turned toward him, and Mabel reached over to squeeze his hand but continued to talk with Pacifica.

The boy just looked up and replied,"no." For him, ever since the summer of 2012, Dipper had realized that he was more bisexual than straight.

Mabel squeezed his hand again. She leaned over to whisper something in his ear. Dipper gasped and slapped her hand. " _What?_ There is _no way_ I'm telling him that!" he whispered.

Mabel took in a breath. "You have to _try_. I know it's been eating at you for years! Maybe he'll accept us. We'll see. C'mon," she urged him.

Dipper took hold of his sister's hand again. She squeezed it. He squeezed it back. "Ford," the man turned his head to him in question. "I have something to tell you." Mabel nudged his arm. "—I mean everyone." He didn't dare break eye contact.

Ford's eyes were boring into his intently as he nodded. "Yes, boy? You can tell us anything," he invited.

Dipper took in a deep breath and told him,"I'm bisexual."

The world seemed to stop spinning. Everything froze in place. Madison and Jacob sat in their seats, looking very confused at this moment. Dipper took slow and long breaths. _Don't happen, don't happen, don't happen—_

The words finally came.

"Get out."

Mabel stiffened. The entire room stiffened. Dipper blinked. "W-what?" Stupid question.

"I said," Ford drawled, light catching his glasses, making his eyes unreadable. " _Get out._ "

Dipper's hands started to get clammy. "But Grunkle Ford—"

The old twin stood and slammed his fists on the table, making silverware clatter and the flames on the candles flicker. " _Do I have to tell you_ twice, _boy?_ " The family, including Bill and Paz, flinched.

Dipper stood, not bothering to blink out his burning eyes. He turned and ran out the door, _running, running,_ running into the forest by their street. He never stopped. 

*******

Silence. That was all. Then, _"What the actual_ fuck, _Ford?_ " Stan'd head whirled toward his brother. Shermy crossed his arms and glared at his younger brother. The aunt and uncle covered Madison and Jacob's ears, their own glares like daggers at Ford. Grandma Camila sat next to her husband, laying a hand on his arm. Leah Pines was staring at the door after her son, unable to go after him. Her husband's face remained unreadable. The teens sat.

Ford shrugged, looking at everyone with a cool sweep of his eyes. "It's not normal," he said to them.

"It's not _normal?_ " muttered Aunt Allison, shaking her head in shame.

"No, it's not. I will not tolerate any _queers_ inside my family." That was it. He blew the fuse.

Mabel abruptly stood up, making everyone gasp and look at her in shock. "You know _what_ , Grunkle Ford?" She grabbed Pacifica's hand, and she stood up too. "I'm bi, too! Guess _I_ have to leave as well." She turned. "Come on, Pacifica and Bill. We're going to go find Dipper."

*******

Dipper sat in a meadow by a stream. This was his favorite place in the forest to be in if he was feeling sad, alone, or if he just wanted some peace and quiet to himself. He's never told anyone about this place.

He listened to the roar of the stream and watched it flow over rocks and down the hill like a mini waterfall. He would never tire of seeing it.

This place wasn't his only favorite, however. Dipper just wanted the noise to drown out his thoughts so he wouldn't have to think about...previous events.

He now lay against a tree behind him and drifted off into precious slumber. _He needed it._

Minutes later, something woke him up. "Dipper! We've been looking all over for you." Dipper groaned as he was being shaken awake by his sister. He saw two familiar blonde heads behind her.

He moved her hand away groggily. "Just let me sleep a bit longer."

"Come on, we need to go back home!" She reached for him again but Dipper slapped her hand away.

He stood up and braced himself against the tree. "I'm not _going_ back home." The others flinched and he waved a lazy hand as he was walking the other way. "You heard what Ford said; he doesn't want me there." He crossed his arms and continued to walk away.

Mabel let out a sigh of frustration. "Dipper, I told him too and he doesn't want _both_ of us there! But that's no reason not to go back, he's just one person." She reached for his arm. Dipper didn't do anything and stopped.

Bill bounded toward him. "Yeah, Pines. Let's go back." Dipper re **f** used to look at him. Pacifica laid her manicured hand on Mabel's shoulder.

Dipper sighed after a very long moment. "Yeah. I guess you're right." The others smiled at him. "But let's not go back for a while," he said. "Let's just stay here for a bit longer."

Mabel smiled as she and the two others stepped beside the boy. "Anything for you, bro."


	8. GDB VLA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so so much for reading! Thank you for the kudos and some of the comments and stuff, I really appreciate it! Really keeps me going :)  
> -Aelin

Dipper paused as he finished off his breakfast. On the wall in front of him, he thought he saw something. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, and it was gone. He laughed in disbelief. _I really am going insane._

There had been a triangle. It was not moving. It had no color, except it'd been dark, as well as his  **p** eripheral vision was. He shook his head. It was probably nothing.

But it was always _something_. He hadn't dealt with anything like this since the summer, specifically the summer when he was twelve.

No. He would not deal with this. Not today. Not on his only break. He needed to spend time with family, he realized. Maybe he'd just been so caught up with himself that memories were flashing back to him.

He stopped thinking about that when Mabel and Ford came in to have breakfast with him. He realized that two people were missing. "Where are Stan and Bill?" he asked them, genuinely curious.

Mabel waved a lazy hand. "Hangin' out somewhere." She went to the pantry and stuffed a pastry in her mouth.

His face fell. Stan. And _Bill_. Were they fighting? Were they bonding? Did he need to break up anything before either of them winds up dead? Stan was always a fantastic trickster and liar. He knew Bill Rephic well enough that he was almost like him. 

 _Huh_ , Dipper thought, scooping a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. _This explains why I didn't get one of his stupid pranks this morning._

He heard the fridge open. Mabel gasped. Dipper choked, and he stood abruptly, running to his sister in a panic. "What's wrong?!" He paused when he realized she had two bottles of syrup in her hands. Dipper groaned. "Mabel, I thought you were dying or something!"

She just slowly turned to face him with a huge smile on her face, bringing one of the bottles toward him. He was confused for a moment until he realized what she was implying. He grinned too and took the bottle. " _Mabel_ , we haven't done this since, like, when we went fishing with Stan during our first summer in Gravity Falls."

She ran to the sink. He joined her. They lifted their bottles and counted from three. Very. _Slowly_. " _SYRUP RACE!_ " Dipper flipped open the cap, tilted his head up, and lifted the bottle above his mouth. He could see the sticky substance ever so slowly trickling out... "Come on, come on...." he heard Mabel splutter and choke.

He scoffed when Mabel declared," _I win!_ " and scooped some water in her mouth.

Dipper went to throw the rest of his cereal away. "That was interesting to watch," Bill reported beside him. Dipper jumped in surprise.

"Damn it, Bill, you scared me!" Dipper sidestepped Rephic and went to retrieve his cereal. He dumped it into the trashcan. _Oh, look, it's Bill,_ he remarked to himself and pushed in his chair.

Bill _pshh_ 'd and slid into a chair at the table. "What gives, Pines?" He held his arms out. "Are you that scared of me?" he teased.

Dipper stood by the door. "I'm not afraid of you, now get out of my kitchen and go take a nap or something." He stormed out of the kitchen to the stairs, but Bill stopped him.

"Stan told me to tell you that we're all having a 'bonding day'. Pacifica and I were invited along."

Dipper paused. "Why would Stan invite _you_ for a bonding day?" He asked him.

Bill shrugged. "Mabel suggested it. She said that we need to learn how to 'tolerate' each other. Luckily, I'm fine. It's _you_ that needs to do all of the tolerating." He smiled innocently at Dipper.

He was right. Mabel told him this already, while they were walking back to the house from last night's...event. Dipper refused to think about it. It just made him upset. He hadn't seen Ford all night or morning—he was probably in his room or other.

"Fine." Dipper told him and walked up the stairs. Bill followed. "What are we doing anyway? You should know."

"I'm pretty sure we're going outside to do a snowball fight and stuff. I never really had done that before."

Dipper wanted to shoot back, _who asked you?_ but realized that that may have been a little too rude. He let Bill's words sink into his mind. Had he really not...

He blinked, realizing that he'd never replied to that. "Well, we'll make it the best snow day that you will ever experience." He grinned and ran upstairs, Bill following him.

During those minutes, Dipper went into the bathroom to change out of his pajamas and change into warmer clothes for outside. He went back into the room and Bill told him that he didn't have any clothes suitable for playing outside, but Dipper lent him some of his own. _Make sure you give it back_ , Dipper had told him.

Bill just looked at him suggestively and shot back, _If you want them back so much, then you'll have to take them off of me._

Dipper stepped out of the room to hide his red face. He slung on his coat and waited for Bill to come out.

He head the door open and close from his spot above the stairs. "Took you long enough," Dipper muttered and went outside to the back door where he saw Stan, Mabel, Pacifica playing outside. It looked like that they didn't do anything without them.

Bill whistled from beside him. "Wow, it's too cold to play outside," he remarked. He was closer to Dipper than usual. Dipper just reminded himself that Bill was just trying to steal his body heat.

Mabel jumped up and down from beside Pacifica, who had her earmuffs on and her scarf around her nose and mouth. She looked frozen to the bone and stood like a rock. "Alright, you guys, are you ready for the best family bonding day _ever?!_ "

Dipper said,"Yeah," unenthusiastically and Stan just coughed and murmured that the cold was freezing his ass off.

Mabel scoffed. "Come _on_ , you guys!" Another moment of silence. Then Dipper felt something cold and hard whack his face. He stopped and sighed through his nose slowly. He looked Mabel in the eyes and said in all seriousness,"Oh, it is _on_ , sister."

Dipper and Bill wound up being on the same team and Mabel and Pacifica were together. Stan just stood to the side as the moderator. Both teams made a fort as quick as they could so they could be protected. Just a blind, spot, just one...

"So, we just pick up some snow, roll it into a ball, and throw it at one of them?" Bill asked him right after they finished forming the snow wall.

 _He really had not done this before?_ Dipper nodded in confirmation as he readied his snowballs, setting them into a pile before him. Then the game started.

After a few minutes of brutally attacking the other teams with snowballs and blocking and dodging and Bill getting the hang of it, someone accidentally threw a freezing ball of snow at Stan.

"Oh no..." Pacifica whispered, fully aware of what Stanley was capable of. Bill began to slowly squat down into their little wall where Dipper was currently peeking out of.

"It is _on_."

After a while, the family and Pacifica and Bill came back inside though the back door laughing.

Mabel made some hot cocoa, and they were all sitting on the couch, laughing together. Bill was next to Dipper on the couch, joking with him. "And I said,' _Interview_ this, _Larry King!_ '" Bill laughed at that. He knew that Dipper and his sister had very interesting vacations at a town called Gravity Falls, but he didn't know that...it'd be _that_ interesting. Like cursed wax figures? That's interesting.

Mabel and Pacifica laughed at some thing on the TV, but Mabel's laughed was a little too...short. Pacifica noticed. She asked her,"Mabes, what's wrong?"

Mabel answered,"Look at them, Paz!" she jerked her chin toward Bill and Dipper, who were cackling about something. They were sitting closer than they had sat together before. They both had a sense of peace on their face and they weren't turned from each other, glaring from the sides of their eyes.

Pacifica nodded and grinned,"Looks like we need to have more bonding days," she answered. Mabel nodded and hummed enthusiastically in agreement. Then, she began to plan.

But that planning was interrupted as Stan leaned into her and remarked,"What's wrong with those two weirdos over there?" Mabel forgot he was there.

So she leaned in and told him.

Stan's eyes widened and he shot his blue eyes toward the boys. " _Those_ two? Well, I guess I could see it..."

Mabel gasped. "Do you mean you believe in them?!"

"Yeah, I guess."

Pacifica and Mabel squealed silently together. Mabel leaned back on the couch and began to think on how perfect they were; Dipper: who's nerdy and a tough nut to crack, and Bill: _very_ cute, Mabel thought, a cocky jerk, but in the flirty type of way.

She gasped. "Paz _Paz!_ That's it! That's why!"

Pacifica fixed her blue eyes on her confusedly,"What?"

The brunette grabbed her friend's shoulders. " _Bill_ is in to _Dipper!_ "

Pacifica stared at her, not at all bothered about the hands squeezing her shoulders to death. "Explain?" she asked.

Mabel released Paz's shoulders and grabbed her powdered cheeks instead, turning the blonde's head toward the direction of Dipper and Bill to keep it there. "Y'know how boys always tease or be mean to their crushes?" she whisper-shouted. She felt Pacifica's eyes widen against her own face. "Dipper doesn't go after _him_ , though, and just look at them now! They're having a conversation like normal human beings and not going at each other's throats!" She finally released Pacifica and fell back onto the fluffy couch, clutching her chest. "Ah, young love..."

Pacifica leaned back to the other side of the couch, her cheeks unexplainably red. "Y-yeah." She put a loose strand of silky hair behind her ear. "Maybe we should set them up? It looks like that they need a little extra push."

"Yeah, off of a cliff," Stan huffed. Mabel yet again forgot Stan was beside them. "But, yeah. I agree. I guess they would be... _cute_. They do seem to like each other right now."

Mabel squeezed Pacifica and her Grunkle's hands. "Tomorrow."

Later, the parents joined them for dinner downstairs. Ford didn't come.

No one spoke to each other. Dipper only took slow bites of his food. He refused to think about what happened last night all day... His childhood hero hated him now. Had called him mean things. Threw him out. He didn't want to talk to him again.

 _Don't cry, don't cry_ , he urged himself as he felt his eyes burn. _Walls, walls, walls_. Oh, walls had helped him so very much over the years. He used to cry very easily, but he learned to keep up the walls so the emotion wouldn't seep through. It looked as if those had been knocked down during his time at home.

He looked around. They hadn't told Leah and Timothy about the supernatural in Gravity Falls, or the very _very_ few they've encountered outside of the strange town. He never told them about the bullying that happened to him during Elementary and through middle school and high school. Never told them the truth about Bill—about how he'd tease and bully him during college, but most of that has been depleting recently so there's no need to tell them. He never really made any friends either. Most of his friends were just Mabel's friends and people from Gravity Falls.

Guess he really _did_ have strong walls up.

His thoughts were interrupted by Stan standing up and putting his plate into the sink. "I'm goin' upstairs," he told them. Probably to talk to Ford.

Pacifica broke the silence. "So Mabel," she drawled, almost a whisper,"when we go back to Gravity Falls near the end of the break, are you going to stay with me for the remainder?"

Mabel smiled at her friend, then looked at Dipper. He nodded in confirmation, a silent _sure. I won't be alone at the shack._ "Yeah!" she agreed, nodding her head.

"Great!"

The awkward silence ensued. The only sounds were  forks scraping on plates. Mrs. Pines put her fork down and smiled at the teens,"So I haven't heard much about Gravity Falls. You never get to tell us." She looked at Bill skeptically. "Have _you_ been to Gravity Falls too?"

Bill nodded. "Yes, ma'am," he answered politely. _His damn manners,_ thought Dipper. But he nonetheless looked to Bill beside him with a look that screamed, _you've been to Gravity Falls?! Why didn't you tell us!_ That explains him being able to take in their stories without thinking that Stan and the twins needed to go to a mental institution or something.

Bill shrugged and grinned. Leah continued,"Well, wouldn't you four like to tell us something about it?" Mr. Pines smiled and nodded, urging them on.

"Uh-hum, yeah! Yeah, we'll tell you a story or two..." Dipper tried to think of something that didn't involve anything supernatural. _The Love God? No, he's an actual Love God... what about Gideon? No! Uhh..._

"So there is this holiday only in Gravity Falls it's sorta like Halloween but in the summer and it's called Summerween!" Mabel blurted.

Dipper nudged her with his arm hard. _Don't say anything, don't say anything,_ he silently urged.

Mabel laughed nervously, knowing there is no way back. No "backspace" button in life. "Well, it was when we were twelve and we were out with our friends that we made and we went trick-or-treating. And stuff." Mrs. Pines waited for her to go on. Dipper nudged he hard again, but in the ribs. "Y-yep, that's it!" she squeaked, smiling nervously.

Dipper shrugged innocently. Bill snorted.

Mr. Pines laughed. "Well, that sounds delightful. Well, I'm stuffed," Mabel and Dipper released a small sigh. "You should be getting to bed too. It's getting late." Everyone groaned, but obeyed.

Later, Dipper was laying in his bed, his thoughts swarming his mind again. Mostly of Ford... he just couldn't get those stupid thoughts to go away. The next thing he new, his vision darkened and saw a black triangle. Again. In the corner of his vision, on his ceiling. He tried blinking and blinking and blinking, but it just wouldn't go away. He squeezed his eyes shut, but it was still there. At the corner of his vision. He put an arm over his eyes and silently wept. _Why can't this supernatural shit just get away from me..._

Then he heard Bill rise from his blow-up bed. The triangle went away as Bill rested his chin on his arms. "What's up?" he asked quietly. Was he being sentimental?

Dipper's lip wobbled. No. He didn't want to share anything. He couldn't. "I-it's nothing, man," he lied and turned to his side to face the wall. He felt Bill get in beside him, like he did from last night and the night before. And Dipper had let him. He felt Bill's eyes on his back. The brunet let out a long sigh as he turned around to face Bill for the first time.

Why _did_ Bill retrieve him with Mabel and Pacifica in the forest last night? Did they drag him along? Did he just want to see how miserable he was and laugh at him?

But he didn't, if his mind was correct. He didn't laugh. He remembered that he smiled at him—not in a cocky way. Not in a teasing way. Just... a friendly smile. Did he dream of that?

"Why is your head written with stars?"

Dipper choked. "W-what?" his face heated as he realized that his bangs didn't cover his forehead. _Great. He thinks I'm even more of a freak than I already am._ He groaned quietly and turned around.

He closed his eyes and dreamt the world away.


	9. GDB VHYHQ

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill and Dipper hunt down a creature, and Mabel and Stan continue to hardcore ship these dudes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the kudos!! You guys are amazing. 
> 
> Also, there was a Gravity Falls marathon going on on the TV while I was writing the last couple hundred and I got distracted multiple times, I'm so sorry, lol.

"This is stupid."

"I think it's relaxing."

"There are rarely any monsters in California!"

Bill puffed out a breath and watched it dissolve into the cold air. Mabel and Pacifica shoved them out the door with their coats and told them to catch a monster for them because they were planning something "special" for when they get back, or something. "You're not even looking!" Bill asserted.

Dipper crossed his arms. "Ever since Mabel and I came back from Gravity Falls that first time, we faced only like, eight monsters here. There's no way we'll find one, especially in this weather during the day."

Bill nudged him. "Maybe you can tell me more stories about your time in Gravity Falls. I've been living there for only half a year **,** so."

The brunet felt the cold seep into his bones and he shivered. "Nah, man," he shook his head, "it's too cold."

"Well, I know a way that can make you warm," Bill indicated, pausing for effect.

And it worked... a lot. Dipper's face and neck flushed. "Ha—yeah, _wait_ —" Dipper started as Bill stole Journal 3 and ran from him. He caught his taunting smirk just as he escaped from his sight. Dipper closed his mouth from when it had been gaping and started into a run. "That little _shit_ , I'm going to kill him!"

He started off into a sprint, dodging random roots and tree branches that were trying to jab him. All he could hear was the blood rushing in his ears, the crunching of leaves, and the wind whipping past him.

After a couple of minutes, he stopped in a clearing to catch his breath. He braced his hands on his knees. Where did Bill go? No one was supposed to look in that journal. What if he was reading it?

A little deeper into the forest, Bill was leaning against a root of a very old tree. He looked at the journal in his hands. He always saw Dipper with this old, beaten up book. Why did he hoard it so much? He'd never seen him look into it once on the break so far.

Once he caught his breath, he examined the cover. It was leathery, and it was dyed a burgundy color. It had metal hinges on the sides and corners. But what caught Bill's eye the most was the dirty, scratched six-fingered hand-shaped golden metallic material with the number 3 written on it in ink in the middle.

He flipped the book to its back and saw multiple places where the leather was ripped off, some of it hanging off. There were multiple symbols on it as well written in bright red ink. He knew what those four symbols meant—two of them meant fire, one water, and the last meant smoke.

He opened the old book to a random page. A scribbled black-ink page screamed at him. There were eyes with slit pupils drawn in random places and the words in red ink read, " _MY MUSE WAS A MONSTER. INTERDIMENSIONAL CHESS ISN'T FUN WHEN YOU'RE A PAWN. I WAS A PUPPET. THE DEVIL HAS A SILVER TONGUE. SIX EIGHTEEN. **F WAS RIGHT**."_

Bill blanched. What the hell was this?

"Bill!" Bill jumped and shut the book closed.

He put on a smirk, as if he was just waiting for him the whole time and hadn't read anything that genuinely frightened him.

Dipper panted as he whacked away the branches in his way and stomped up to Bill. " _Dude_ , don't leave me in the forest like that." He snatched the journal out of Bill's hands and put it inside his coat.

Bill hid the nervous laugh that was trying to escape his throat. "So... you warm now?" _Ugh, that was stupid, Bill._

Dipper's paler face reddened from where he stood in the snow. "Y-yeah, because you made me chase you all the way right here. Now, let's just find the monster for Mabel so we can go back inside." He opened it to make sure Bill didn't mess anything up. Satisfied, he gestured at Bill to follow him when he walked further into the forest.

After a minute or two of silence and listening, Bill asked, "So... you up for some storytelling now?"

The corners of Dipper's mouth turned up a bit. "Fine." He thought for a moment. "Have you ever heard of the different categories of ghosts?"

Bill nodded. "Yep! 1 through 10."

Dipper smiled fully. "Well, there's another category that probably no one has told you about..." Dipper told him that during his first visit to Gravity Falls, Pacifica—who used to hate him and Mabel— called them up and told them that there was a ghost haunting Northwest Manor and that they were the only ones who could help her. He told Bill about the party and how he and Pacifica defeated the dangerous ghost that was prophesied to kill the Northwests, but Pacifica broke the curse which allowed the ghost to rest forever.

Bill was silent after that. "Wow," he said. "You guys are really that good, huh?"

Dipper sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guess so. We were all twelve at the time, so, yeah."

Bill opened his mouth to say something, but a roar shook the forest. Dipper's head snapped up and he stopped walking. He exchanged a look with Bill, and they both took off running toward the source.

They hit the spot after a moment of locating, but the roar was gone. "What th' hell?" Dipper muttered, looking around. It must have been something big that let out a cry like that.

The silence was the loudest sound. The forest was silent, as if it were waiting for something. For _what_ , exactly?

The hair on the back of Dipper's neck rose. Fighting the stiffness of his body, he picked up a nearby sturdy stick and lifted it, ready to swing. He heard Bill do the same.

Then he heard the sound of something being scraped across the trees. Dipper whipped his head around, but before he could look at the—whatever it is, he only saw pieces of bark flying from the tree from where it was flayed. It was not far at all.

Dipper held his breath. Then there was a hiss in his ear.

Dipper whirled, striking before he could get a good look at the creature, and he heard Bill suck in a breath before he whacked the thing with his own weapon as well.

It lay dazed for a second or two, but it was enough time for Dipper to get a good look at it. It was a wyvern. A rather small one, at that. It was no larger than Bill's car and it was darker than night.

Its wings flapped a little bit—as if it hasn't grown into them yet. Then it screamed. It screamed like nothing he had heard before in his entire life of hunting the supernatural.

It moved around rapidly, dodging their sticks and the littler sticks thrown at them. _Of course_ , Dipper thought, _Mabel hadn't thought to give us a knife or two. That would have been helpful._ But he knew she was trying her hardest to get him and Bill to bond, and she was his sister. He loved her with all of his heart.

The wyvern got sick of their batting and it slammed clawed feet into their faces. Dipper instinctively jumped back, pulling on Bill's coat to get him away. But he was unfortunate to get a cut on his cheek.

Dipper looked around the area for a moment as the creature rapidly flapped its wings and circled them. _Ah_! He picked up a large fallen branch near him in both of his hands. He tried to locate and predict where the wyvern would fly next so he could whack it. _Now_! Dipper shoved the thick branch into one of the wings of the creature.

"It's down," he told Bill, who just looked at him as if he'd grown an extra head. "It's starting to snow. It'll cover our tracks." He grabbed Bill's wrist and dragged him. "Hurry! Before it gets up and walks. It might be able to get the branch out."

After a few minutes of fast-walking in the forest and watching the snowflakes dissolve onto the white-covered floor, Bill finally spoke, "Wow."

Dipper scoffed. "I've fought worse. Places outside of Gravity Falls has all of these _wimpy_ creatures. But that's what's we get when there are very rarely any supernatural creatures. It gets boring." He smiled at the ground.

"Wow. I've seen only like, two creatures in Gravity Falls so far—" Dipper heard Bill's intake of breath as if he'd realized something. "But what was a _dragon_ doing here? Like, that's just fantasy stuff, right?"

Dipper's mouth quirked to the side. "First of all, it's a wyvern, not a dragon. Second, there might be an adult wyvern somewhere around here." He saw Bill's face whiten beside him as he walked. He smiled comfortingly, even though Bill couldn't see it, and said, "We'll all defeat it later. For all we know, it might have been a portal or something. We're not going to worry about it right now."

He heard Bill's sigh of relief. Then he let out a chuckle, of embarrassment, maybe? "I'm sorry, Pines, I'm just not used to all of this supernatural stuff."

Dipper nudged him playfully on the shoulder. "Don't worry, man, I was like that two when I first discovered these kinds of creatures. I kind of got used to it." He lifted his chin as they neared the house. "I think you fought well," he poked Bill's cheek and the latter winced. "You need to get that cleaned out, though."

Bill grimaced and rubbe **d** the skin around the cut. "Yeah, I don't want to know how dirty it's claws were, or if they're poisonous or not. It just stings, though, I'm sure I'm fine," he shrugged.

Dipper opened the door, let Bill in, and closed it. He was immediately swarmed by Mabel in her lazy wear, with Pacifica trailing behind her. "So? _So_? Did you catch anything?" She asked quickly.

Dipper chuckled nervously. "Well, yeah, we did," he saw Mabel giving Pacifica a high five behind her back, "But Bill got a cut from one of the claws."

"What? Who has a cut?" Mrs. Pines briskly ran down the stairs with a worried look on her face.

Bill took a step forward. "Me. I don't think it's dangerous, though." He took off his coat and laid it gently on the couch, as did Dipper.

She bit her lip and put a hand on his shoulder to steer him over to the kitchen. "Well, we'll get that fixed. Dipper, why don't you come along?" she gave Dipper one of the most loving, motherly smiles and he just wanted to melt.

He said sure and followed them in. Before they closed the door, though, he heard Mabel and Pacifica squealing silently. He just interpreted it as them talking about their favorite show or something.

The brunet sat in a chair at the island next to Bill and almost laughed as Bill winced harshly as his mother cleaned his cut.

Leah Pines made a little sound of pity and asked, "How did this even happen?"

The blond laughed nervously, but Dipper just said, "Oh, Bill just tripped and fell on some rocks." The latter scowled at him, and Dipper felt like a champion.

Leah cooed and put a bandage on the cut. It stood out on his face, and Dipper wanted to laugh. "There we are! Don't trip on rocks anymore." She told him and put the kit away.

Dipper and Bill stayed in the kitchen and went over their thoughts for a while. Dipper thought about the whole incident with Ford again. He still hasn't heard a peep about him or from him yet. The rest of his family seemed pretty accepting, since none of them have been treating him oddly. They've been treating him like a normal person.

Ford was, or used to be, his idol, his _hero_. He used to look up to him in everything he did. Dipper obeyed him every time Ford told him to do something while they were exploring and testing and all of that. Dipper didn't want to talk to him, not now. But he does want to talk to him, he really does. No he doesn't!

He put his head on his hand, staring at Bill's dirty shoes. He shouldn't be arguing with himself over this. He just wants to go out and explore right now, but he just got back inside and it was too cold. He wanted to inspect the whole wyvern thing. Ford should be helping him....

"Do I have something on my shoes?" Dipper jumped as Bill spoke up. Dipper chuckled nervously and put his hands in his lap.

"Er—no," he said.

Bill's face changed into something sympathetic. "Hey, you okay?"

Dipper paused in surprise. He rubbed one of the scars on his hands from his time hunting and facing the supernatural. "Not really," he told him. "But you already know the reason for that."

The blond smiled. "Hey, he'll come around. He's stupid for not realizing how amazing you are, and not accepting it. You're the same person from before. There is nothing different."

Dipper's face burnt up at Bill's words and he had to cover one of his cheeks with a hand. _Did he really think that?_ "Th-thanks, man." He responded.

The two sat in a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes until Bill stretched until his back popped. "Well, I'm getting hungry. Do you have stuff to eat?"

They ate and then Stan came back downstairs. Bill and Dipper walked into the living room and saw Mabel whispering something into Stan's ear, stealing looks at the two boys every few seconds.

Dipper shrugged and flopped onto the couch. Bill fell onto the armchair beside it. "Ugh," Bill drawled out.

"Same," Dipper agreed. "I'm so tired after this morning, but I feel like I just woke up."

"Mmm," Bill patted his cheek and winced. Dipper snorted, peeling his red flannel off of him, leaving him in a white undershirt, and put it on top of his head. He didn't move it.

Stan snorted at him from across the room. "Classy." He and Mabel moved to sit in the living room as well.

Dipper asked Mabel, "Hey, where's Pacifica?"

Mabel waved a lazy hand. "She went out somewhere, I don't know."

No one spoke for a while, and Dipper was sure that everyone was asleep. Dipper put his flannel in his lap. "Hey, Stan?" he whispered.

Stan's lip curled, but answered, "I was about to fall asleep. But shoot, kid." He invited.

Dipper squirmed in his seat. "Has... has Ford spoken to you about me?"

Stan stilled. "We aren't going to talk about him."

The brunet sighed, "Alright," and fell asleep.

For the rest of the day, the four of them spent the afternoon bonding happily together.


	10. GBD HLJKW

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a carnival in town and bonding moments ensue.

" _Wake up, wake up_! There's a carnival in town!"

Bill's head snapped up. Where was he? He palmed a bed and a carpeted floor— oh. He was on an air mattress at Pines' house. He sighed and flopped back down.

 _Wait_. A carnival? He looked ahead of him to ask Mabel about the carnival, but she was gone and left the door open.

He sighed and got up out of bed and grabbed some clothes out of his suitcase to put on. Pines was grumbling something he couldn't decipher and then he pulled his legs off the bed. "Hey, man," he murmured, half-tripping, half-walking out the door to the bathroom.

Bill snickered and put on his clothes. He was excited for today... a carnival? He's never been to any of those. He's heard that the ferris wheel is the most terrifying ride. Maybe he'd ride it and drag Dipper along to frighten him. Yes—he'd do that, Bill decided.

He went downstairs to have a bite to eat for breakfast. The Pines family was so nice for making him food everyday and night, he'd never been this full before. He needed to repay them somehow.

"Hello, Bill!" Mrs. Pines waved at him to come into the kitchen. "I'm making pancakes right now—would you like some?"

Bill smiled **g** ratefully and took a seat where he sat yesterday at the island with Dipper. "Yes, ma'am!"

Mrs. Pines smiled and laughed. "You know you can call me Leah!"

"No can do, ma'am!"

She chuckled and waved a hand covered with an oven mitten and went back to making the pancakes. To pass the time, Bill was playing Subway Surfers on his phone. Boring, but a great way to pass time.

"Ugh," sighed Dipper from behind him. He looked like hell.

"You look like hell," Bill told him.

The brunet slid into the chair beside him and sniffed the aroma of almost done pancakes. "Tell me about it," he replied, running a hand through his hair. "I finally finished my book last night, since I didn't have time over—," he yawned, "—this break so far."

Bill snorted, "Nerd," and smiled at Leah when she set down a plate of pancakes for the two of them. The blond smiled gratefully at her when she gave them both a fork and knife but... there were no extra plates. Which meant they would have to share plates.

"Dear Axolotl," Bill cursed silently when he snatched the syrup and poured it over a pancake.

Dipper waited silently for him to finish making it look pretty with the syrup before taking it and poured it over his own. "What even is an axolotl?" he asked him.

 _Oh, did I seriously say that?_ Bill inwardly facepalmed. "It's uh... a type of salamander. I like axolotls. They're cool." Nice job, Bill.

Dipper just looked at him suspiciously but didn't ask any questions. After eating their breakfast in silence for a few minutes, Bill spoke up, "Hey, Pines? Have you noticed that there are no balls anymore?"

Dipper choked. "What?"

Bill snorted. "No, like—dancing events. Like, in dresses and tuxedos or whatever. I don't know, I kind of miss that." He took a bite of his pancake.

"Oh. Well, you can't miss it when you've never lived in that time period. Sounds fun, though. There's homecoming and all that, but it's not the same I guess." Dipper shrugged.

Bill's face fell. "You're right." He took another bite and then pushed the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows. "Hey," he said again. "What is your opinion on slavery?"

Dipper put his fork down and looked at Bill with a perplexed look on his face. "Why are you asking me these questions?"

Bill shrugged and prompted him to answer his question.

Dipper rolled his eyes and finished the rest of his pancake. Then, "Well, it's not here in the United States anymore, and slavery is illegal, so there's that. I don't think it was fair." Then he was done with his breakfast.

Bill shoved the rest of his pancake in his mouth and followed Dipper into the living room, where Mabel looked unusually sad.

Bill sat next to her on the couch and Dipper went to her other side and put his arm around her on the back of the couch.

"How goes it, Sweaters?" Bill asked.

The brunette held up her phone without looking up. "Pacifica hasn't texted me back ever since she left yesterday, and she didn't come back last night..." She put her face in her hands. "I'm just really worried about her."

Dipper smiled and put his arms comfortingly around her shoulders into a hug. "Hey, Mabes, Pacifica is a strong girl. We shouldn't worry that much. What about that carnival?"

She sniffed and laughed weakly. "Okay, Dip."

Three hours later, they finally got their neon orange wristbands that will let them on unlimited rides. It was an extra 15 bucks, but worth it. Dipper relished the smell of fried food and the sound of children screaming and the feeling of his shoes stepping on stale popcorn and making an odd sound on the sticky pavement.

Bill and Dipper kept Mabel between them when they walked around. Dipper discreetly had his phone out and started to text Pacifica. _Where are you? Where did you go? Why didn't you come back to the house? Why aren't you answering?_

Dipper's mission for the day, though, was to keep Mabel happy and to babysit Bill while he's at it. Not too hard, right?

Oh, he was so wrong.

Bill was constantly pointing at everything. One second he was pointing to a roller coaster and wanting to go on it and the next, he pointed at a food stand and wanted a churro or something.

But Mabel was quiet. She was smiling, yeah, but normally she would have been trying to engage a conversation with both of them and would maybe be as excited as Bill, but...

She wasn't. She kept to herself, chuckling quietly when Bill grabbed Dipper's arm to drag him to a roller coaster line but change his mind every other few seconds.

Dipper ignored Bill and nudged Mabel. He grabbed her hand. "Hey, what do you want to do?"

She shrugged. "I'm kind of feeling just a calmer ride."

Dipper pulled her into a side hug and smiled. "Of course."

They chose a ride for littler kids that was easy on them that went high above and overlooked the park, with wide turns that go downwards. It was steel, which meant it was smooth and promised relaxation.

Dipper held Mabel's hand and grabbed a sulking Bill's wrist and made it into the line. He was enjoying himself, looking at the excited kids and their parents nodding and trying to catch up to their chatty words and encouraging them.

They'd finally made it to the front of the line and they got the front cart. Dipper left his hat at home, so he didn't need to worry about that. Mabel sat in the middle.

After a couple of hours of having fun, Mabel let go of Dipper's hand. "Hey Dip, you don't have to try to make me happy or anything. I'll be fine." Dipper opened his mouth to protest, but Mabel beat him to it. "I do know Pacifica. She's strong, like you said. I know that she can handle herself. She'll call me back soon when she's ready."

Dipper searched her eyes a second.

Mabel chortled and pushed him. " _Bro_ , you don't have to worry about me!"

Dipper sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, yeah, I believe you. Wait—" he looked around. "Ugh, seriously?" Rephic was gone.

"Boo."

Dipper squeaked and spun around. Oh. It was just Bill and a... a giant blue lion stuffed animal? Why would a lion need to be blue? _Whatever_.

Bill chortled and Dipper saw his cheeks redden, but it was probably a trick of light or the cold, Dipper thought. Wb

" _OHHH_ , you just got _pranked_ , sucka!" There was Mabel.

Bill gave the lion a quick look over and gave it to Mabel. "You looked like you needed it," he said. Was this really Bill? Was he possessed?

Dipper looked at the lion in surprise in Mabel's arms. "Are you possessed?" He asked him.

Bill choked. " _No_."

Dipper thought that Mabel was going to suffocate with all of that laughter that she was trying to hold in.

Then that was when they got the phone call.

" _Hello? Hello, Mabel_!"

Mabel's eyes widened. "Pacifica! Why didn't you answer before? I was so worried! Where are you?"

" _I'll tell you later, but... where are you? Bill's stupid car—_ "

"False!" Bill broke in.

"— _was gone. Wait, do I hear people and screaming? Are you at the carnival?_ "

Mabel's face brightened. "Yes! Yeah, we are. Meet us up here! We've all been worried."

Pacifica agreed. They said their goodbyes and hung up.

Mabel smiled and sighed.

"Uh oh..." Bill smirked and poked her arm.

She looked at him incredulously. "What?" She tucked the blue lion closer to her under her arm.

Dipper just stared.

"You..." Bill started.

Mabel blanched.

"... And her..."

Mabel covered her eyes with the lion. "Yes!" She peeped.

Dipper coughed, "I'm not surprised," and moved the lion out of her face. She was beat red. "I'm happy for you, Mabes!"

Mabel groaned. " _Ugh_ , it's not like that! We're not together! It's just..." she coughed into her hand, "A little crush."

Dipper just squeezed her into a hug. "Still happy for you. C'mon, let's go meet Pacifica near the entrance."

Later, they finally met up with the blonde. She looked like she changed into an outfit more fitting for a carnival. She promised that she would tell all of them what happened after they'd had a little fun and got their mind off of things. They thought it was a good idea.

Mabel and Pacifica decided that they should spend time together. Just the two of them. Just girl time. Leaving just Dipper and Bill. Hooray.

Bill nudged his side. "C'mon, man, I thought we had those bonding moments!"

Dipper supposed that they were friends. He rolled up the sleeves of his red flannel. "Sure," he sighed. "What do you want to do?" He asked him.

Bill didn't hesitate to say, "The ferris wheel."

Dipper sputtered. "The ferris wheel?" He repeated. He has many bad memories of the ferris wheel. Every time the carts shook, he felt like he was going to fall and die. And, bedsides, weren't ferris wheels supposed to be romantic or something in some ways?

The blond rolled his eyes. "Yeah, the ferris wheel. C'mon, we're right next to the entrance!" He tugged on Dipper's arm. Dipper just felt like he was in a romance movie and hoped that Bill didn't know what the meaning of this whole thing was.

"Ughhh," Bill pouted. The line was long.

Dipper beamed and yanked his arm out of Bill's grip. "Whoo! That means we don't go on—" Bill grabbed his arm again.

"Nope. You're staying with me right here."

 _Great_.

Later, finally, one of the staff nonchalantly led them both to a cart and told them the rules. Dipper's heart was beating faster every second.

Dipper and Bill sat on one side, which made the cart tilt. No... it needed to be balanced! This was how he was going to die. "Bill!" Dipper quickly tried to push Bill to the other side before the ferris wheel started moving again. "Move!"

Bill crossed his arms and sat back. "We're fine! Other people were doing it."

That didn't make him feel better. Soon, they would be 50 feet high up in the air with the whole cart tilted on one side.

As if he read his mind, Bill scoffed and said, "We won't fall. It won't turn upside down or anything, even when they start tilting our carts. There's a reason why these things haven't been taken down and why it wasn't in the safety lecture."

Dipper sighed, defeated. "Fine. Just don't move."

They sat in silence for about a few more seconds. Then the ferris wheel finally began moving.

Dipper's heart stopped. He couldn't help but look out the window— they were going up, up, up, almost to the top, and...

The ride stopped. Dipper tried to stay as still as possible. "W-what's going on?" He grabbed Bill's hand and the cart seat like they were his lifeline.

Bill ignored Dipper's hand death gripping his wrist. He just tapped his foot to a beat of a song. "So, what'd you do for fun last summer?"

Dipper couldn't believe him. They were about to die and Bill was trying to bond or something. "Y-you just— Bill, _look_ at this situation that we are in!"

Bill scoffed and smiled. Dipper refused to acknowledge the fact that his face got hot, despite the cold. "This was always part of the ferris wheel... almost to the top, then it stops and rocks. Haven't you ever been on a ferris wheel before?"

Dipper just wanted to curse and say that _of course_ , he's been on a ferris wheel before but then he thought over Bill's words for just a second. "Wait... rocking?"

Then the rocking started.

" _Bill, oh my God, oh my God_."

Dipper held on tighter.

Bill choked and tried to pry off Dipper's hand. "Okay, kid, you're gonna like, cut the circulation out of my hand if you keep up with that."

Dipper muttered a small _sorry,_ and tried to calm his breathing. It was fine. He was fine. No one has fallen off of a ferris wheel yet.

"So, you've fought scary monsters that want to kill you for years, and ferris wheels are the one thing you're afraid of?"

Dipper only picked up the _you're basically fearless_ , compliment and he blushed again. "I don't know, man," was all he said.

Bill picked up his hand again and Dipper stiffened. "You're okay," Bill said gently. "It's only a ferris wheel. These are one of the most harmless rides." Dipper began to calm.

"Wow, thanks, man." The brunette said. Then he smiled. The ride was going again!

They looked out the windows as they neared the top. Then Dipper could see _everything_. He could see the other rides, restaurants and concession stands, games, and he swore he could see Mabel's bright sweater and Pacifica's blonde hair. He also saw the interstate and the landscape behind it. He could see the colors of twilight in the sky. Had they really been at the carnival for that long?

Dipper's memories of ferris wheels before were nothing but terror. Well, he was still afraid, but not as afraid to just... look out. See the world. And it was beautiful.

Meanwhile, Bill was also staring at something beautiful. And it wasn't a landscape.

Aside from it's clamminess, Dipper's hand was soft in his own. He probably got his callouses scraped off, or something. He looked at Dipper's wide eyes, its brown gloriousness reflecting the lights of the park. His matching hair was also shining and his cheeks were slightly tinted red from the cold.

 _Damn_ , Bill thought. _I'm really thinking that._

Then Bill did what wanted to do before he could hesitate and brought Dipper's hand to his lips and kissed it.

Then their cart went down and down and down until they couldn't look over the park anymore. Then they had to get out.

Bill still held his hand.

He looked at Dipper's face and it was as red as a tomato— _probably_ not from cold.

Bill poked his face. "You okay there?" He tried not to laugh too hard as Dipper covered his face with his free hand.

"Fuck off, man," he said, but didn't let go.

They found Mabel and Pacifica sitting at a restaurant, Mabel still had the blue lion and she was sitting next to Pacifica, looking and listening to her talk as she sipped her shake. Dipper and Bill took seats opposite from theirs.

"Hi!" Pacifica said to them. She seemed friendly today. Mabel gripped her arm and beamed at them. She looked really happy now that Pacifica is back with them.

Then she looked at his and Dipper's joined hands. " _Oooooh_ ," Mabel waggled her eyebrows.

Bill blushed when he realized that they've been holding hands that whole time without realizing it.

Dipper let go and cleared his throat. "So, what is it you want to tell us, Paz?"

Pacifica's smile fell. The happy moment was gone, Bill realized. She took a deep breath. "Right, I said I would tell you guys... well."

Mabel laced her finger's with Pacifica's. The blonde smiled gratefully at her before straightening her green jacket and cleared her throat. "Well, it turns out my boy— _ex_ —boyfriend now was in town. He said some..." she shuddered. "Mean things to me." Bill saw Pacifica squeeze Mabel's hand. "And said some things about Mabel. And you, Dipper." She closed her eyes and opened them again. "Let me start over."

Pacifica told them about her boyfriend and how he was "outraged" that she was going to spend the winter break with Mabel and Dipper instead of him. Pacifica told them that Mabel and her family were practically her own actual family and that Christmas is celebrated with family. It turned out that he was cheating on her anyway and she just... said goodbye to him and went to a hotel, turned her phone off, and thought about things.

They didn't push Pacifica on telling them what those _things_ were.

Dipper smiled. "You're always welcome in the Pines family, Pacifica. You always were."

Bill gave her an awkward thumbs up. "Glad to know you're okay."

Mabel squeezed her lightly and silver glistened in her brown eyes. "You're my favorite person in the whole world, Paz!" Dipper glared playfully at her and she stuck her tongue out at him.

Pacifica blinked like she was trying to get an eyelash out of her eye.

"What's up, blondie?" Asked Bill, also a blond.

Pacifica kept persistently blinking her eyes. "I'm trying not to cry because that'd totally ruin my mascara."

Mabel snorted and grabbed her into a hug. "Aw, we love you, Paz."


	11. GDB QLQH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill finds a piano while exploring the house and they all go out swimming. Dipper finds out some secrets.

Bill never had the chance to explore the Pines' family house yet. He was so excited to learn some new secrets that he only had a granola bar for breakfast and he raced to the front door of the house-the beginning. He wondered where he could start first...

He finalized that he should start at the top and work his way to the bottom.

The upstairs hallway was p **l** ain and simple-the stairway was at the end of the hall. The walls were painted white and the doors were wood. The snowflakes were still there. Both sides of the hallway had rooms and there were pictures nailed to the walls. On Dipper's door, he could see two posters about aliens and space. On Mabel's door, he could see magazine cut-outs, drawings, pictures of friends, and the casing was painted hot p **i** nk. Her door made him feel like he was in some teen girl movie. The other rooms' doors were not decorated. The bathroom at the end of the wall was nothing special, it was just painted white as well.

Bill studied the pictures on the wall. The first one he saw was a picture of the whole family. Mabel and Dipper looked to be in second grade, maybe. The other pictures along the walls were full of other family pictures and pictures of the twins and relatives throughout the years in order. He also saw a picture or two of Stan and Ford in the sea.

  
He was going to explore downstairs next, and outside after that. He needed his coat and he didn't feel like going up and down the house, so he'd grab that now.

  
Bill barged into Dipper's room, who was on the computer typing away at his desk, and grabbed his coat and went out.

  
Dipper, meanwhile, was eager to finish the over winter break project. He really wanted to start on researching wyverns so he could get rid of them, but he needed to finish this.

  
Mabel and Pacifica were out shopping, Stan and Ford were out too, and Bill was doing whatever, he didn't really care, and his parents didn't bother him so he had no distractions as of right now. He felt himself getting lost in the background music and entered his characters' world.

  
That's when he heard it.

  
He heard the sound of keys of a piano being pressed downstairs. It was a fast crescendo of notes and it was an overall happy tune. Dipper waved it off- it was probably his mother playing. _Wait_... he didn't recognize the piece. He went downstairs to inspect.

  
Then he heard the singing.

  
_We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when..._

  
It was Bill. He could play piano? He didn't know that. He also didn't know he sang as well. It sounded wonderful... maybe he took classes?

  
The sound of his singing and the notes of the piano blended together gloriously. It sounded as if this song had a deeper, emotional meaning to it.

  
_Keep smiling through, just like you always do, 'till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away._

  
Then he heard Bill's fingers slip on the keys with an awful _CLANK_ and a filthy curse. Dipper crashed back into the real world and he realized that his eyes were tearing up.

  
Bill was looking up at him with a red face. Dipper could have sworn that Bill's eyes were damp.

  
Dipper coughed awkwardly from where he stood leaning against the wall. "Uh, I heard you playing so I came to watch." He let out a choked chuckle. _Nice, Dipper_. "So... you, uh, play?" He asked, ever so smooth.

  
Bill turned back to the piano and picked up his worn brown coat from beside him on the wooden bench and hugged it. "U-um, you can say that. It's the only piece I know," he replied, almost a whisper.

Dipper peeled himself from the wall. "Well, I think it's beautiful." He walked a few steps closer and stood next to the bench. There was no sheet music in front of the blond in front of him. "There's no sheet music," Dipper blurted. His cheeks flushed.

  
Bill stiffened. "Well, I memorized it. I used to play it a lot."

  
Hm. "When did you learn to play?" Dipper asked. Bill was really talented.

  
"I started to play when I was small."

  
Not exactly an answer, but Dipper took it. But then that was when he realized that he didn't know much about Bill. Bill had been too much of a dick most of the time for him to ask. He also never really talked to him before until they got assigned as partners. Dipper knew he had parents, though he'd never spoken about them. That's when he asked another question.

  
"So, where are your parents from?" Ugh, that was completely off topic, Dipper. Nonetheless, Dipper sat on the bench next to Bill. He was genuinely curious.

  
Bill stiffened before replying, "I don't have any parents." He turned to Dipper and met his shocked gaze. "I never met them." His posture was slouched a little.

It was so quiet that Dipper could hear himself breathing in the piano room. He'd finally had the guts to ask, "But you asked them-"

"You never asked if I had parents." He shrugged. "I do have foster parents, though, but I don't talk to them anymore. I have been living on my own since I came to college."

Dipper didn't know what to say.

  
Bill huffed out a sigh. "Alright, Pines, whatever you do, don't pity me, okay?" His voice was gentle. "I never knew them. It's fine."

No. It wasn't fine. Bill never got to experience the love of a mother, the protectiveness of a father. _Until now_ , a voice in the back of his head told him.

  
That's when Dipper's mom came into the room. "I hope you boys are up for some lunch. I made some mac n cheese and chicken alfredo, if you want some."

"Sure, Mrs. Pines!"

" _Leah_!"

Dipper and Bill ate some lunch in silence with the parents. That was when Mr. Pines suggested something.

  
"Hey, honey," he told Leah, "We should just have some relaxing time. Just you and I. We could take a walk in the forest. It isn't as cold today." He sipped his drink.

  
Leah touched his arm. "What a good idea, Tim!" She told him.

Dipper wanted to say no. There was a wyvern or two out there- a certain someone distracted him from getting work done.

  
But his parents were too stubborn and they would say no to that. Leah turned to the boys and said, "I think you guys need to go out, too. Pacifica and the girl are out, we're going out, and you two look like you need your relaxing time, especially after..." she pointed her chin upwards, gesturing to upstairs, "certain events."

  
Dipper wanted to protest, but Bill plastered on that certain stupid grin and agreed.

  
Tim smiled at his wife and took her hand and kissed it. Dipper wanted to gag, but it reminded him of the time on the ferris wheel last night. When... Bill kissed his own hand. His face got hot just remembering it. He was trying to shove those feelings and memories away. "Let's get going, shall we?" Then they went upstairs to put warm clothing on.

  
Bill took his last bite of the _delicious_ , mind you, chicken alfredo. "So, what are you thinking of?"

Before he could answer, the front door burst open in a whirl of pink and purple. Mabel was pulling Pacifica's wrist toward the living room. She looked excited. Pacifica didn't look as excited as her, but happy nonetheless.

  
"Um," Dipper finished putting his and Bill's dishes in the sink. "What's going on, sis?"

  
Mabel was almost jumping where she stood. "Pacifica hooked us up to a private indoor pool!"

  
Bill stood up immediately. "Really? That's so cool!"

  
Dipper nodded. "Awesome." Dipper wasn't the best at swimming, but he could swim.

  
Ever since he and Mabel became friends with Pacifica, she always took them to her mansion for sleepovers (which Dipper was never excited for) and cool private places. He never understood why the Northwests lived in Gravity Falls instead of Las Vegas or something. But he was grateful for her. She always helped him and Mabel with their problems, like they helped Paz with her own problems. They were her escape from her family and they were all best friends now. Dipper would be lying if he said that he hadn't had a crush on her when he was 12, but after that one trip across Oregon in his first summer, he could say that he'd changed his preferences. ...That wasn't a good couple of days, but it helped him realize who he really was.

  
Pacifica clapped her hands together twice. "Great! Let's go now. Don't want to spend that money for nothing."

"Oh, Paz."

  
They went upstairs to put their swim stuff on under their clothes. Dipper didn't want to make the mistake of going into the snowy, freezing, outside world in only swim trunks and a T-shirt. When they got to the front door, he released a breath knowing that none of them made that mistake.

  
They took Pacifica's car and Paz and Mabel sang to T-Swift songs and Dipper and Bill were sitting awkwardly in the backseats. Bill was on his phone and Dipper wanted to keep his own phone at 100% in case anything bad happens, like someone drowning. Or if someone calls him.

  
Curious, Dipper leaned over slightly, not enough to trigger Bill, and tried to see what he was doing. He was reading the story that Dipper had typed in so far. Dipper was so surprised that Bill was reading it that he hadn't realized Bill was looking at him too.

  
"Uh...what's up?" when he didn't get an answer, he just told Dipper, "Hey, this is pretty good. Better than I could do."

Dipper thought, _Wow, a totally genuine thought from Bill Rephic_. His stupid feelings made his face freeze up and redden. He panicked, and said, "Not like you'd know how to do it." He leaned away to his side of the car.

"Did last night mean anything to you?"

Dipper's entire body froze. "Uhh..." _How do you think_ you _feel, Dipper Pines?_ The voice in the back of his head said again. "Maybe." He forced his body toward Bill. Then he saw Bill who was very red. Dipper was wondering if Bill felt as still and hot as him.

  
"Okay."

Dipper looked toward the front to make sure they were safe from the prying girls in the front but they were still screaming Taylor Swift. How had he not noticed that? Also, how did they not hear the awkward small confessions in the back?

"We're here!"

 _Thank God_.

They went inside and checked in. The secretary looked bored. She had the same face the entire time they were checking in and she didn't even said hi. Pacifica said an energetic thank you! but the lady didn't respond.

  
They all excitedly followed Pacifica down the hall down a few turns and they finally reached the door to the pool. Paz brought out a key and opened it. It was...breathtaking.

  
The pool was turquoise and the large windows brought a lot of sunlight into the pool and the snow brightened it. Lights weren't needed. The wall on the opposite from the windows and on the sides were dark bricks. There was a waterfall going into the pool. That was the only noise in their.

  
Mabel immediately shrugged off her clothes, leaving the pink bathing suit on, and whipped out a Bluetooth speaker- how _did she get that?_ -and her phone. "Time for music!" She declared a little too loudly in the empty room. She finally turned on some upbeat and popular music which filled the room. She found a shelf that she could put it on instead of the chair and jumped right in with a big _whooo!_

Dipper chuckled and shook his head. He chose a chair in the corner and put his stuff down and left his T-shirt and swim trunks on. He looked over to Bill, who seemed to have brought an actual swimming shirt, where he put his stuff down. He stopped looking at him when he started to take his shirt off, but-

  
Dipper started. "Bill? What's on your back?" His breath came in quick pants.

  
Bill stilled and still had his sleeves on his arms. He turned quickly to hide his back. Whatever relaxed look he had on his face was gone now. "I-uh, well, they're..."

  
Dipper took a few steps forward and forcefully shoved Bill back toward him. He couldn't feel his face when he took in his back. The multiple burn marks on his back were large and they were a screaming red. "B-Bill, what are-"

"Car accident." Bill said and turned to face him again. Bill glared at the ground, refusing to make eye contact with him when he pulled on his other shirt fit for swimming. The conversation was finished. Dipper knew he was lying. It wasn't a car accident. He knew how to read people. He wasn't stupid.

  
Dipper scowled at him, got ready, and got into the pool. He stole one of the tubes from the girls when they weren't looking. He moved to the other side of pool away from them by his chair and away from the waterfall. He lost himself in the music for the second time that day. He was almost asleep, but Pacifcia waded over to him.

  
"Hey, we're gonna play Marco Polo. Wanna join us?" She pointed with a thumb to Mabel and Bill. "Don't be a loser, Dipper." She added.

  
Dipper sighed through his nose and got off of the tube and put it at the corner of the pool. "Coming," he answered.

  
They played 15 minutes of Marco Polo before getting bored, and then they decided to race each other. During Marco Polo, Bill was it one time and Bill was getting so close to him that when he finally touched him, the touch burned his skin. He heard Mabel and Paz snicker from where they were out. Also, Pacifica won the race. He knew that she took swimming lessons so he knew that she would win or at least tie with someone else.

They also had a snack bar in the lobby. They looked like that they restocked it with unhealthy fried food and stuff every once in a while, it looked like. No wonder this place was so expensive! They ate their free food as a snack for a few minutes.

  
Dipper settled with a corndog and chips on his plate and slouched in one of the cushion chairs, happy to be out of the pool and happy to satisfy his hunger. He eventually ran out of food and got another corndog. He was so exhausted.

  
Pacifica yawned from her spot on the couch next to Mabel. "Maybe we should just go back and take a nap in there, or something." Everyone nodded in agreement and went back to their private pool.

  
Everyone except Dipper went to their claimed fold-out chairs and laid down and closed their eyes. Dipper went to the window and pulled two out of the four blinds and went back to his own chair. Now-tired Mabel mumbled in acknowledgment to him.

  
Dipper laid down and put his coat over his body and listened to the waterfall. He was at those stages where he was tired, but not sleepy. He could hear Mabel's snoring and Pacifica's steady breaths.

  
He gave up sleeping and got up and put his legs in the pool. Right now, his mind was somewhere else. It was nowhere.

  
Well, it was nowhere until Bill sat next to him and put his legs into the pool as well. Their shoulders touched.

  
"Hey." Said Rephic.

  
"Hi," replied Dipper. "What really happened to your back?"

He wasn't sure Bill was breathing beside beside him. "I can't tell you," he whispered.

  
Dipper nodded, turning his head away.

  
"I will tell you someday, but not now."

  
Dipper straightened and turned back to Bill. "Promise? You better not be lying to me."

  
Bill smiled a lopsided smile. It was cute. "I promise."

  
Dipper smiled softly and looked at Bill's eyes for the first time. At first, he thought that his eyes were brown but...they were a deep hazel. It was beautiful. He felt Bill's breath on his lips. They were only centimeters apart, Dipper realized. Now or never, he told himself as their noses grazed against each other.

  
Then there was a triangle.

  
A triangle in the middle of his vision. They were back. He thought those were gone.

  
He hadn't realized that Bill was speaking to him or touching him until now. He was shaking Dipper's shoulders to make him snap out of it.

_D-ip-per! Wake up!_

  
Then Dipper snapped out of it. They...they were gone. The triangles were gone now. He was fine.

  
Dipper lost it. "I-I don't even know why I keep doing that, they just keep coming back-" he shook his head as tears fell down his face. Bill pulled him onto his chest.

He rubbed his back and shushed him. "You don't need to tell me. Whatever's there is gone now."

  
Dipper wished he could believe him.


	12. GDB WHQ

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang has a bake-off and Dipper’s life flips upside down.

Dipper Pines woke up warm. This wasn't familiar, but it felt good. He was comfortable. He didn't want to get out of bed. But why was he so warm?

  
Then his eyes shot open, knowing what, or _who_ , made him warm in his bed.

Bill was up against his back side, his arms wrapped around his middle. Their legs were tangled together and he could feel Bill's hot breaths on his neck.

  
Dipper went from warm to got. He felt heat stirring up in his groin and he realized in a panic that he had to get out. He didn't want to get out though... he had this dreadful thought that if Bill woke up, he would probably get mad at him even though he didn't do anything.

  
Careful to not make any noise, Dipper sucked up a breath and slowly took Bill's arms off around his middle and untangled his legs from his. Bill made a small noise of discomfort, and okay that was _adorable_ , and he crawled over to the end of his bed. He didn't dare breathe too loud until he stepped out of the bedroom and closed his door quietly. He collapsed against the wall and gasped for air.

  
 _Bill Rephic will be the death of me_ , he decided. He felt fierce heat in his face and lower body. He looked down at the obvious tent in his sweatpants. He bit his lip to conceal the groan of frustration--frustration at Bill and himself.

 _You can't ignore your feelings anymore, Dipper_ , That voice in the back of his head chastised him.

  
He ignored it went into the bathroom to take a _very_ cold shower.

After he stepped out of the shower and dried himself off, he realized that he made a terrible mistake. The mistake of not bringing in any clothes...he had already put his dirty ones in the laundry chute.

  
 _Stupid, stupid, stupid_. His face was still hot. He didn't want to go back to his room after this morning and with just a towel around his waist.

  
After a few minutes of arguing with himself, he went on autopilot, opened the bathroom door, and stomped down the hall to his room. His nostrils flared before he opened the door, and lo and behold, sat Bill on Dipper's bed, waiting for him.

  
"Took you long enough," he huffed. "Mabel came in and said that she's doing a bunch of shopping right now, and we're doing a bake-off?" He shrugged, his stupid flawless blond hair shifting at the movement.

  
Dipper just stood there awkwardly in only his towel. He cleared his throat, "Okay, that's great, I'm going to get ready. You should too, I can smell your breath from here." Dipper really couldn't, he just wanted Bill out of the room right now.

Bill screwed up his face and flopped back onto the bed, the springs underneath protesting at the movement. Dipper rolled his eyes and went to getting his clothes from his closet. The blond said on the bed, his voice muffled against the pillow, "I thought you took a shower last night, though."

"I, uh, could still smell the chlorine on my skin." Dipper almost pat himself on the back while he was getting dressed inside the closet.

  
Dipper could hear shifting in the room. "Well, while you do that," a grunt, "I'm going to get ready." Then the bedroom door opened and closed.

  
Dipper released a heavy sigh when he was sure that Bill was gone. His thoughts went back to the private pool yesterday, when he and Bill had almost...kissed. Then those cursed triangles came back. Dipper almost kicked a hole through his closet door as he thought, _I'm far away from Gravity Falls, Bill Cipher was defeated a long time ago, why is this happening just now?!_

He wanted answers. He was impatient. He also wanted to find those wyverns and try to keep them away from civilization as far as possible. He couldn't tell Ford, as the old man hated his very existence at the moment. Stan doesn't know much about Cipher. Mabel was always with Pacifica and he didn't want to ru **i** n her break. None of his parents would ever understand what the rest of them went through, they'd probably send all of them to therapy or something.

  
What of Rephic? He lived in Gravity Falls, apparently. Dipper could probably tell him about the triangles but he hadn't lived in Gravity Falls long enough to know or see about the chaos demon. He wouldn't have asked anyway, from the _Never Mind About All That_ Act. He could keep secrets. Wouldn't he be able to keep Dipper's own?

  
Dipper buttoned the last part of his flannel, yanked open the door, walked out of his room, and went downstairs and into the kitchen.

  
Mabel and everyone else was already there and he saw a billion Walmart bags on the table. He also saw a lot of pots and pans out.

  
Dipper went over to Bill's side. "So we're really doing this?" he murmured.

  
Bill turned and smirked at him. "What, are you scared?"

Dipper's mouth snapped shut then opened it again. "I'm not scared!" He protested, voice more high-pitched than he would have liked.

  
Mabel cleared her throat and went to the center of the kitchen. "Alright, contestants, are you ready for a bake-off!?" A couple of unenthusiastic _yay_ 's were heard. "You can and will bake anything you want with these supplies! The most delicious out of the two teams, which are boys versus girls, get a prize. We have an hour to do this! _Are you ready?_ "

"I never agreed to this," Dipper answered.

  
" _BAKE!_ "

Dipper rushed to the supplies, coming up with an idea just now. Peach cupcakes. He raced toward the fridge to get the peaches he knew they had. Bill raced up to him, "What can I do?"

  
"Get normal cupcake ingredients."

  
"Got it."

While he did that, Dipper put his mind off of his rivals and focused at the task at hand. He's always liked peach cupcakes, and not any other fruit ones. He liked his with a bit of spice in them, like cinnamon. He grabbed the cinnamon and the rest of the ingredients and started to work.

  
He lost himself in the work, going on autopilot and occasionally telling Bill what to do. His thoughts strayed toward Ford once again. Why can't he just accept Dipper for who he is? He used to accept him, he used to say how much they were alike with their anomalies and weirdness. Dipper guessed that being bisexual was...too weird for him.

  
"Dipper. Dipper!"

"What, what?" Dipper blinked once, twice. He looked down and he saw that he was pouring in too much cinnamon. Guess these will have to be spicy cupcakes now. Dipper furrowed his brow. "Sorry, man, I was just thinking. Of stuff." He bit his lip and scooped up as much cinnamon out of the icing as he could.

  
Bill's eyes softened. "Hey, it's fine. We've got only half an hour, by the way. The cupcakes are almost done baking."

"Yeah, thanks." Dipper smiled gratefully at him and that smile did not go away as he thought about how Bill and him made such a good team. He thought of that snowball fight with the girls and Stan and now. They got so much done so far and would have a lot of spare time after, while Paz and Mabel were behind them, screaming at each other and their oven wasn't even pre-heated yet.

Mabel taught Dipper how to bake when they started high school. One day, Mabel dragged him by the collar to the kitchen to help her bake the cupcakes for a party. He enjoyed baking since then, but it wasn't an everyday hobby though. Reading and exploring were in his criteria.

  
He liked Bill Rephic. Romantically. The thought just came to him as he stirred the pinkish-orange buttercream frosting. Now that he thought about it, he really didn't know when he started to actually like him during the break. He guessed that he just force tolerated him a bit, and it worked a little too well. He know cared about him and he liked Bill's interest in the piano and was amazed at Bill's swimming skills yesterday.

Now, about those secrets...Bill told him about his parents. He had none and was in foster care for most or all of his life. He'd also learned how to play piano while in one of those foster homes. How could Bill know just one upbeat and difficult song to play on it? He'd have to know how to play other easier songs. That's how piano was taught, right? What about his back? That was not a car accident. There was no way...those burns looked permanent. Doctors could have made burn marks go away from a car accident. How bad would the accident have to be, anyway? There would be a burning car and skidding to pierce the skin. That was something else...perhaps worse than a burning car accident with a teen skidding across the ground.

  
While Dipper took the ready cupcakes out of the oven, he thought of other possibilities. Bill would have told him about some supernatural creature in Gravity Falls that he'd encountered. Dipper had faced more creatures than he could ever think of in that town, and no little monster would have done that there.

  
He took a Ziploc bag and began scooping the icing into it while Bill was cutting the last peach. Was it a tattoo scar? No, those burns were too spread out and looked deep. They also didn't look recent, and the last time he checked, you were supposed to be eighteen to get a tattoo in Oregon and taking it off must have been a bitch. But that wasn't the case, he knew it.

  
His mind went back to _Ford, Ford, Ford_. He noticed his movements with scooping the icing into the bag became jerky, but he didn't care. Ford used to be his closest family next to Mabel, and his best friend. He saw and heard Ford become feral with him at that dinner table. He didn't understand why Ford became so...ignorant toward him so quickly. Surely just liking not only girls but boys was fine? None of the rest of his family was negative toward him, even his aunts and uncles. Only Ford. Only him. Only his Grunkle, only his best friend.

He was blind behind the tears forming in his eyes. He opened the drawer next to him to grab a pair of scissors to cut the corner of the bag. He wallowed in his anger and sadness for a bit more until--

"Ah, shit!" He'd accidentally cut himself with the scissors. He dropped them and the bag on the table before Bill murmured a surprised curse and steered him over to the sink to wash the blood off. _Secrets, secrets, secrets,_ that voice told him, that _right_ voice. The triangles came back. Two triangles--right in the center of his vision and they were glowing a bright yellow.

  
Dipper couldn't move as Rephic's gentle, distinctly soft hands washed his cut under the cold water. This soothed him, and he was pulled out of his angry thoughts and those triangles went away. A band-aid was put on his hand. He turned around and saw Mabel flash a worried but a mischievous you'll talk to me later look over her shoulder.

  
"Sorry again," Dipper grimaced as he apologized. Bill turned off the sink and got the complimentary decorations out.

  
"It's fine, you were going to bleed all over the place if I didn't help." Bill smirked at him and pulled his wet sleeves to his elbows and Dipper was reminded how bi he was. He said a barely distinguishable _sure_ and turned around quickly and started to ice the batch of cupcakes.

  
After a while, they'd finished decorating the cupcakes. They'd sprinkled some bits of peach on top of the icing and put a little paper straw between the peach slice and the garnish. They also finished all of them with 10 minutes to spare!

  
Bill told him that he was going to go to the restroom and Dipper decided to flop onto the couch to rest his tired legs. Bill joined him later. Before Dipper fell asleep, the timer went off in the kitchen. It was time for their baked goods to get test tasted by the parents and Stan.

  
Mabel raced upstairs, icing and glitter stuck in her hair, to get them. Bill, Pacifica, and Dipper put their cupcakes on two different plates on the table.

Soon, the three were both seated in front of the plates and the other four stood in a line in front of them.

  
"Alright, family," announced Mabel, "We have done this because we have nothing special going on in our lives and we are all bored out of our minds as of right now. Now, there can only be one winner between the two teams, boys versus girls, and they get a super amazing prize!"

Bill scoffed quietly beside Dipper. Dipper inferred that the prize was going to be a big tub of glitter.

  
Leah Pines sniffed the air. "I bet they're all going to be sweet like my children!" The twins and Stan booed. Dipper could feel Bill's awkwardness beside him.

  
Mabel went over to the table to present hers. "Here we have our delicious red velvet cupcakes with mini chocolate chips inside with white icing sprinkled with crushed crumbs and edible glitter!" She pumped her fist into the air. " _Smell that aroma of red velvet!_ "

  
Dipper raised his eyebrows in amusement and pushed past Bill to the table. "Bill and I made peach cupcakes with buttercream icing with cinnamon." Blunt. Perfect. Dipper inwardly smiled at his amazing explanation.

  
Stan and the parents chose to eat Mabel and Pacifica's cupcake first. They gave overall good feedback.

  
Then they went over to Dipper and Bill's plate, where the cupcakes were _neatly_ placed.

  
Mrs. Pines closed her eyes in bliss.

  
Mr. Pines hummed.

  
"Ooh, spicy--just how I like my women!" Leah smacked Stan's arm very hard. "Ow!" He grumbled something and rubbed his arm. He had bits of icing around his mouth.

  
Dipper felt like a proud parent. The three family members signed their slips of paper on who they thought the winner should be.

  
1 minute felt like an hour. Dipper wanted to win. He didn't work his butt off and cut his finger for nothing!

  
Mabel skipped over to the slips of paper excitedly. "Alright folks, let's see who the winner is, aaand-- _WHAT?!_ " She held the three slips close to her face. Then she glared at Bill and Dipper. "Guess you two won." She then took an angry bite out of one of the boys' cupcakes and her eyes were wide. "WHAT KIND OF SORCERY IS THIS?" She then stole the plate of their cupcakes and ran away. Pacifica snorted at Bill and Dipper's shocked expressions.

  
She went up to them and bit into a peach slice. "So, the prize for you two that Mabes had in mind if you won was to go take a walk outside for an hour."

Dipper started. "Wait, what? Isn't it cold outside?"

  
Pacifica forced them out the door like they weighed nothing. "It's the warmest day all break, and people need their Vitamin D." Then she shut the door and locked it while Bill and Dipper stared at it.

  
After a moment, now realizing it just felt like spring outside, Dipper waved Bill over to the sidewalk. "Let's just go, Bill." Bill went over next to him and walked with a spring in his step.

  
They walked through the neighborhood this time instead of the forest. Bill took his hand, much to Dipper's surprise, and swung their hands as they walked. Dipper was surprised he didn't get lightheaded from all this blood rushing to his face.

  
They kept pointing and laughing at random deflated and weird-looking Christmas decorations.

  
Dipper pointed with his free hand at a deflated Santa, "I never heard Stan follow us out here."

Bill pointed at a Christmas tree at the end of a driveway, its branches sticking out in random directions, "Hey, look, Pine Tree, it's you!"

 _Pine Tree_.

Dipper felt the entire world stop. And crash. And burn.

"Wait, what's wrong—oh."

Bill Cipher. Bill Cipher. This was Bill Cipher. Bill. Cipher. There is no Bill Rephic. This entire time—

Dipper yanked his hand out of Bill Cipher's grip. Once he remembered how to move his feet, he ran home as fast as he could.

Bill Cipher did not follow him.

 


	13. GDB HOHYHQ

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper listens to Bill’s backstory...and it wasn’t what he expected.

Dipper didn't sleep that night at all. **H** e was pulling at his hair though, wondering _why_ and _how_ did he not see it before? The yellow, the bow tie, the nicknames, his name is _Bill_ ,  just _how?_ Even those triangles in Bill _Cipher's_ presence and those flashbacks. He didn't want to have those flashbacks again. He had even written down the names _Bill Cipher_ and _Bill Rephic_ next to each other. He didn't understand.

  
He'd let Bill sleep next to him, on him. He'd let Bill to **u** ch him and hold his hand. He'd been in Bill's presence alone with him far away from other eyes and ears...why hadn't he just ended him then? What did Bill want?

Then the knocking came. "Sweetie," it was his mother. "You boys should really stop walking around in there. It's the middle of the night."

Dipper's throat closed up. "Actually," he whispered through the door, "Bill isn't here." That name felt like lava on his tongue. That name that had once belonged to his heart--or he thought did.

  
"What?" Leah opened up Dipper's bedroom door and her eyes were clouded in confusion as she scoured the messy room. "Is Bill here?"

"No," Dipper didn't look up at her. He just kept sitting on the ground, staring at the blank wall in front of him. "No."

Dipper didn't look at her face when she sat down on Dipper's bed. "Did something happen? You too looked perfectly fine yesterday."

Dipper  expected his face to heat up but it didn't. "It's not like that, mom, but," he glared at the wall once more. "He's gone."

  
"Do you not want him to come back?"

Leah flinched as Dipper lay his eyes upon her. "No," he said, and walked out of the room and went downstairs to the couch. But his mother followed him.

  
"Tell me what's going on!" She persisted, pointing at the ground.

  
"It's complicated."

"You will find that boy," Leah started, but Dipper interrupted her.

  
"I can't! I don't want to see him again," tears gleamed in his eyes.

  
Leah unleashed her fiery wrath. "No, Mason, I don't care what is going on between you two, but you will resolve this! You will not just sit there! I cannot stand you being upset over one boy!" Dipper wanted to explain who Bill Rephic really was, but he couldn't.

  
He heard someone stomping down the stairs. Before Dipper knew what was happening, Leah pushed car keys and a phone into Dipper hands and shoved him out the front door.

  
Then he heard the voice. "I heard yelling down here, what's going on?" It was Ford.

  
Dipper's blood turned into ice. He went on autopilot and scrambled to the car. He drove out as quick as he could when he saw Ford open the door and shot him a surprised glance. Then of anger.

  
Dipper didn't look back as he cried and drove out of the neighborhood to search for Bill Cipher.

  
He'd driven to  a McDonald's to actually get some food. The sun had only just risen. He was looking through his mom's phone when he realized that he didn't have his own with him. That's when he saw a certain app that caught his attention...

It was a tracker app. Curious, he opened it. He opened one of the tabs which opened his mother's contacts...Bill showed up. When had she gotten Cipher's phone number?

He entered his phone number onto the tracker, waited a second or two, and then he got a signal.

He was an hour away. At a park. Dipper stood up from his seat and ran to the car and immediately drove off, the phone locked onto Bill's signal.

Why was he doing this? Maybe Dipper was trying to find him for his mother. Or for Stan and Ford to deal with. Maybe he was looking for Bill for himself.

But nonetheless, he made it to the park and began walking around, still looking at his phone. He shivered as he got closer and closer. Then he put the phone down and saw a certain blond haired guy on a bench.

Dipper carefully sat on the bench next to him, staying as far away from him as he could without getting too far.

"What do you want, kid? I already apparently messed your entire life up," Bill breathed, looking ahead and not at him. "You know I am not going to hurt you, right?"

Dipper shrugged, not feeling too sure about the once all-powerful chaos god beside him.

Then Bill looked at him and Dipper almost flinched at those yellow hues that he'd admired a couple of days ago. "Does Ford want me?" Dipper did flinch that time. "Do you want to kill me?" He scoffed and broke eye contact. "I don't have that anymore," he murmured, but Dipper heard.

Dipper's breath caught in his throat. Bill had no powers. "Bill...Bill _Cipher_ ," Dipper addressed him, squaring his shoulders. "Tell me how this happened."

And Bill did.

"Alright," Bill Cipher squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. "It all happened when I was born, in 1809..."

You could see a mother with two young in her hands, her crying drowning out the cries of her own children's. She looked down upon the twins with sorrow.

She knew she couldn't take care of them. The father was so terrible and was an alcoholic—she couldn't show the children to him. He would never care for them. Neither could she herself.

She took a deep breath as she put the two newborns to the side of her on the dark floor and shakily pulled her skirts back up. She had to bring the babes to the orphanage with all the strength she had left.

She stood up and carried the babes out of the alley and wobbled down the street, no one giving her more than a first glance. In Britain, no one ever really cared. No one with power like the king would help either.

"Hush, little ones," she murmured as they cried and cried and cried. "I'm so sorry." She wept as she walked.

Finally, she had reached the wealthy orphanage. She pulled the door-knocker and knocked three times. The door opened immediately, showing a plump lady with expensive clothes on with jewels. At her side, a kid held her hand. He looked well taken care of. She'd chosen the perfect place.

The mother almost let out a sob as she handed her two infants over to the woman. "Please," she whispered. "Please take care of them."

The owner took a long look at the babes and drew from her pipe. She set it aside. "Hand them over. I will take good care of them. My maids and I will feed and bathe them everyday." She then took the newborns in her hands and shut the door closed with her foot, leaving a devastated and weak mother shaking and sobbing violently on those brutal, dark steps.

The owner, Mother Ethel, looked at the children. She examined their eyes—one a glowing golden color and the other a striking light blue. She wanted to throw them out; they were strange.

Her maid, Florence, looked questionably at her. "What shall we name them, Miss?"

Ethel scowled at the children. "Name both of them William. We'll call one of them Will and the other Liam." She handed the babes to her young maid and stormed out.

Florence smiled at the one with the golden eyes. "Hello, Liam." She rocked them both in her arms. She looked to the one with the striking blue. "Welcome to the world, Will."

Nine years passed by, and Liam and Will had become so keen and happy. They saw only the good of the world. Liam was always called to trouble, mainly just teasing the other kids, but Will was his complete opposite and was quiet with a passion for art and reading.

Liam currently was chasing around a five year old named Henry, who's parents had died in a fire when he was barely even two. Liam and Henry were best friends, and every time they would tease each other, they would both get into trouble by Mother Ethel. It was nothing more than just a little whack or a lecture.

But this time, it was different.

Liam and Henry were laughing and squealing, with the occasional, "Liam, give it back!" and "never!" But all things must come to an end. They suddenly heard the slow, uneven, heavy steps of the old Mother Ethel. Liam hurried to give the toy back to Henry, tears of fear pricking in both of their eyes when Mother Ethel screamed, " _Liam!_ "

The rest of the kids in the room fell silent. Will stopped drawing with the charcoal and swiftly hid behind the toy chest.

Liam smoothed his blond hair to the side, careful not to upset Mother Ethel even more. "Yes, ma'am?" he greeted politely, straightening and bracing himself for what was coming.

She harshly gestured gestured for him to come to the other room. The nine-year-old fiddled with his shirt collar as he nervously walked into the other room, catching a glimpse of his brother's unnatural black-blue hair before he left the living area.

Mother Ethel waited in unnerving calmness at the foot of her bedroom upstairs, eyeing him down.

Liam was waiting for her to say something. It felt like centuries.

"Well?" the blond almost jumped out of his skin when he heard her harsh, brittle voice.

The boy put his arms behind his back and looked at her shoes and he said, "I apologize, Mother Ethel. I know you said not to tease Henry anymore—"

She slammed her hands on her dresser. " _And you disobeyed me!_ " Liam flinched. "This has happened for the umpteenth time, even your own brother behaves better than you!"

Liam could do nothing but watch as she let out her anger on her things. He always had.

But this time...

 _It was different_.

This time, she let out her anger on something else: _him_.

"I _knew_ I should have thrown you out the second I laid my eyes upon you!" She took off her shoe.

He felt the impact before he felt the pain...she'd chucked her brogan at him. He shrinked away before she threw her other shoe at him—at his chest this time. It hurt twice as much.

"I had told you for the _last time!_ " Tears streamed down Liam's cheeks as she held him by the collar. Her stinky breath hit his nostrils before he knew it. "If you get in trouble one more time," she breathed, "You'll get a worse beating than this."

With that, Mother Ethel—wait, no. Just _Ethel_ shoved Liam away from her. The sobbing boy ran downstairs to his brother, who saw his red arm. "Brother, what happened?" He cried in alarm.

Liam grabbed Will's arm and took him into the boys' bedroom. "Will, we have to pack up. I don't wanna live here anymore."

Will had started crying now, too. "W-we can't, where will we go?"

"I don't know, Will. I don't know."

They went to their trunk, as they shared the same bed. Liam put on a white long sleeved shirt, put a yellow vest over it, and a long, black cloak. Will had done the same, only he had a blue vest. These were the only clothes given to them. These nice clothes were what they wore to church every Sunday morning down the street.

That's when someone opened the door.

James came in, a seventeen-year-old boy with brown hair put into a short, low-hanging curly ponytail. He looked up at the brothers with a surprised look on his face. Liam would be lying if he said he didn't have a crush on him.

Liam went to him quickly. "I-I can explain!"

Will stiffened at Liam's side.

James' lovely freckled face smiled. "Here, I can help you two out."

The brothers sighed in relief. "Really?" Will blushed.

James just patted them both on the back. "Yeah! I know how much of a hellhole this place could be, but I've never had the guts to leave. I'm scared to the top from Mother Ethel, but I'd never had the courage to leave. I think you two are very brave."

And soon, James led them safely out the door, before smuggling some money from Ethel and Florence and not leaving without a top hat on each of the boys' heads.

Liam beamed happily at the teen. "Thank you so much!" he ran up to hug him, which Will joined in on as well.

James kissed both the boys' foreheads. "No problem, you little hornswogglers." He tearfully let the boys out onto the street wishing them luck.

Two months passed by. Liam and Will decided that they could sleep under a metal stairwell outside a townhouse complex. No one complained, they never even looked at the two.

Liam hated his name. He hated how that big, fat jollock had always used his name—never lovingly, never used with sympathy. Always with simmering _hatred_ and _disgust_ , like he was a _monster_.

"Bill." He said suddenly, making Will jump as the nine-year-old ate his bread.

"What?"

Liam—no, Bill—looked at his brother. "My new name is Bill."

Years passed. Bill counted down the days they were out. It was about 9 years later until they ran out of their carefully saved money from James. Bill'd learned how to pickpocket, but Will didn't have the heart to do so. They both had come up with plans to steal bread, though, and never got caught except only once or twice.

They now worked in a coal factory for money. It was a meager amount, but it was better than nothing. Enough to keep their bellies full at the end of the day.

It was a risky job, one that could have send them both to their graves.

The two twins were still both without homes, though. Kind people gave them coats a couple of years back, but they grew out of it. Bill had suggested that they would run every morning around the city to keep in shape and now their muscles were toned. It also decreased the likelihood of them getting sick, but when it did happen, they would spend all of their money on medicine that would barely even work.

Now, they have two days off because of holidays that the two didn't celebrate. It was very cold today and the two huddled together with their small coats to keep themselves warm.

Will was sick and they could afford no doctor or medicine. Bill had a strong immune system so he rarely got sick. He prayed that he wouldn't catch the sickness.

Bill put Will's head under his chin and he sniffed his familiar hair. They weren't dead yet. Death would not claim them soon.

He listened to the bustling streets of people that just wouldn't care, except the nice ones who put coins in either of their worn and old top hats from when they'd escaped the orphanage.

Bill'd realized only a few years ago that the orphanage hadn't even posted "missing children" pictures of him and his brother. They didn't care. They never bothered looking for them, they were in that same city area too!

Since he and Will had been counting the days they were gone and keeping track of months and time, when their birthday came up, they would do nothing special. They'd just acknowledge that it was the day of their birth, say happy birthday, and go on with their miserable lives.

Speaking of birthdays, it was their birthday today. The 18th of June. And Will was sick and it was unnaturally hot outside for England. Bill considered taking their blanket walls down so Will could have at least some air. He huffed and got up, laying his brother down on their worn down pillow that they shared.

Bill then took out a few pieces of bread and a small cup of their preserved water from their small storage. They had nothing much, really. Just some dirty, too-small clothes and money for emergencies. But not enough to get medicine for Will.

He sat next to Will and lifted his weak body and laid him against the hard wall. "Come on, Will," he said, putting the slice of bread up to his lips. "You have to eat it and keep your strength up."

"I'm not hungry," Will croaked.

But Bill was patient for him. Always. "Will, please."

He opened his damp lips and ate it.

Bill beamed at him. "Good! Now drink some water."

Turning 18 was not as dreamy as he thought it was. Turning 18 while he was still at the orphanage meant that he was free. Turning 18 while your living on the streets, well, it's not exciting. It's just the same boring life, but trying to just stay alive as well. He brothers had been doing a good job until Will got this sickness and they could not afford medicine. Bill would never forget about this after Will finally got over it or if they get enough money for medication.

Bill almost dropped his own cup of water as two tall men in fancy clothing appeared at their spot in the skinny alley. They studied their blanket walls held up only by a stick long and strong enough for the width of the alley and to hold up those blankets.

One of them pointed their groomed face and recoiled at Will's state. Bill stood up and stood in front of Will, blocking those men from him. "Is there something you need?" He asked steadily.

The other man turned to look at him. "Yes," he replied. "We heard some complaints of sickness here."

"And we want you to evacuate." Bill's blood ran cold. "We need you to get far away from here, or any civilization for that matter. We don't need anyone else getting sick."

Bill almost cried at Will's wet cough behind him. "You can't make us go! This has been our home for a long time!" He protested.

A dark shadow passed over the first man's face. "We can make you do whatever we want, son, we just need you to leave. No harm done. You need to get out by dawn or we'll evacuate you ourselves, and it will not be pleasant. Just do what we need you to do. Surely you understand." Then they left.

But Bill did not understand. Bill did not care about other people getting sick. He wanted to yell at those men to take people like him and Will into consideration, but they would not listen to him.

"Where will we go?"

Bill let a small tear escape his eye and cascade down his cheek. "I don't know, Will, but we better start searching. We need to get out of here," Bill began carefully taking the stick down between the walls for the first time, letting those dull blankets fall to the ground.

Will started crying. He sat up and nodded, putting the shared pillow in the shared blanket they had. That was mostly just all they had, except their small top hats from childhood and the container of food and water and the box of clothes.

They got done quick, Bill helping Will, and Bill put the blanket around Will, protecting him from the heat of the sun as they walked down the streets and left their home.

Will had trouble. He carried only the box of clothing while Bill carried the rest of their stuff, but he was looking even more tired than Bill. "Just a little while longer, brother," he promised him. They were almost out of the city.

A few hours later of walking, slower than Bill had wanted to walk, they finally made it out and passed the last building. Then Will collapsed onto the ground in a shaded area from that building. The sun was going down.

Bill panicked, put down the food and their stuff, and rushed over to him. Will was breathing thankfully, just asleep. He'd wake up soon.

A couple of weeks have passed since they found an abandoned home in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't in very good condition, but it was way better than the alley. Will seemed to have almost gotten over his sickness.

Bill went to a plantation to work without Will and he got a more decent pay than the factory, thank the Lord. They almost had enough to buy Will's medicine to heal him completely!

But working there by himself meant Will had to stay here by himself. Every morning, Bill dragged him outside to run around the area like they did in the city. Now that Will has been getting a little better, he's going to get more healthier by exercising. That was good.

Bill also walked into the town closest to them with some of their money for food. Less money for medication, it seemed, but they needed food too. Food that they could afford.

Bill nestled into his blankets next to Will and sighed. They had found an old scrub board in one of the rooms and so they used that with the water from a stream nearby to wash their blankets. To wash all of the memories and the sickness away. They still shared that pillow on the ground.

Then Bill saw something. It was odd—it looked like a pink animal _floating_ at the foot of their door. He must've been catching Will's sickness because that was obviously a hallucination.

Then he fell asleep and dreamt.

It was dark. He heard people—were they people?—chanting, _Axolotl, Axolotl!_ Like it was a prayer on their lips. Axolotl...that must have been that pink thing by the door in the room.

Them color exploded before him.

Those _axolotls_ swam past. Except they were not pink at all. They were gray—they were stone. Stone axolotls _whooshed_ by his ears and ran _from_  or _to_ something. He didn't know what. Why were these things made of stone? And how were they alive and well?

Bill stepped forward and, as if he was pushed, _flew_ with the axolotls, like he was a stone axolotl himself. Then he was someplace else, no gray or axolotls at all. Except one.

This time it was a real axolotl. Pink and _huge_ and its external gills flowing gently around it. It's large smile did not reach his dark eyes.

Then it spoke: "Bill Cipher," he addressed Bill. Bill was confused. Who was Bill Cipher? Was that his last name? He never knew about his last name. He never knew anything about any of his parents. "Arise."

Bill woke and sucked in heaves of air. What kind of dream was _that?_

He looked around. Everything was normal.

He turned around and studied Bill's face.

 _Do it, do it, do it_ , a voice chanted in his head. It wasn't his own voice. But Bill knew more than to be afraid.

"Do what?" He whispered to no one, sitting up.

_Go, go, go_

Go where? Do what?

But that voice did not answer him.

For the next few months, that was what had bothered him. Every day, at least every couple of hours. That voice telling him to _go_ somewhere, and to _do_ something, but he didn't know what.

Then he snapped.

It was as normal as a day could be, that _voice_ in his head and Will aimlessly walking around the house, walking away the sickness that was gone but he didn't want it to come back.

Then he went to Bill while he was fixing a problem in the house. While he wasn't at the farm, he'd find things to work on and fix at the house. He learned a lot of things by himself here. Where he had all thoughts to himself. "When am I able to get out of this house?"

Bill took out a floorboard. "You already get out of the house," he answered without looking at him. He heard Will's hands that flopped against his sides in frustration.

"No, Bill, I—off of the _property_. You always go out of town to buy food, when can I join you? I have nothing to do in this house."

"When you've finally beaten the sickness." He cleaned both sides of the board and started to examine the rectangle hole on the floor below.

"I've _already_ beaten it!"

Bill's eyes widened. This was the first time Will had _actually_ yelled at him. He turned around, eyes trained on Will's eyes. Bill felt a curve of agitation when he saw that look on his brother's face, the disgruntled look. He'd never seen it on his face before. "Leave me be, Will, I'm trying to work here." He turned back to the floor to work.

Will stomped over to him and took the board from his hands and before Bill could react, he cried, "Bill, you're never with me anymore! You're always working at the farm or working on house stuff, but you're never with me anymore! I promise, I've beaten the sickness, I can handle the town."

_Go go go_

"We don't need food right now." Bill glared at him indignantly and snatched the board back.

_Do it do it do it_

"Come _on_ , Bill! You're my brother. You've been my brother until a few weeks ago. Can you be my brother now?"

_go GO GO_

"Will, I'm done with this conversation."

_do it DO IT DO IT—_

"I guess you're not my brother anymore then."

_DO IT GO DO IT GO GO GO—_

"SHUT UP."

 _Thud_. Will collapsed. Bill started. He was on the floor and his body was limp. Bill checked his pulse. He wasn't breathing and he was gone. He was gone.

Those voices in his head stopped and they quieted.

There was silence in his head. It was too silent and he was screaming. Screaming at the quietness, that Will, his brother, was dead and _he killed him, he knew it_.

He was shaking him. He shook and shook him, his head bobbing back and forth. Bill couldn't hear anything of the real world. He couldn't hear a single thing. Couldn't feel a single thing.

As he cradled his dead brother in his arms, he sobbed and sobbed. He wished that he'd said something else to him before this—an _argument_ , an argument on something stupid! He couldn't believe himself.

He opened his eyes and looked at the door. That axolotl from that dream all those months ago was there. He looked gentle and kind. Bill felt like he could trust him.

"Heal him, please," Bill pleaded.

The axolotl just shook his head. "I cannot do such a thing," his powerful but quiet voice told him. "There is someone outside this house right now who is ready to kill you. They heard the noises you two made," Bill's blood ran cold. So cold. He clutched Will's body closer to his chest. "But, there is something I can do. I can take your life right now. But to do that, I will have to turn you into a demon, unless you want to watch your brother's body be torn apart."

"What will you do with him if I accept?" Bill was numb.

The creature floated over to them, parting Will's dark blue-black hair to the side. "I will take him somewhere far away. I grave, underground."

"I have a request," Bill croaked.

The axolotl waited.

"Bury him under our home."

It knew what Bill meant. It nodded solemnly. "As you wish."

___

"Bill..." Dipper didn't know what to say.

Bill stopped him. "Wait," he said. "I'm not done."

Dipper waited for him.

"Something entered me when the axolotl took me to...wherever it took me. I call it the Nightmare Realm."

___

It was dark. Bill couldn't feel a thing. He couldn't find the axolotl, but he trusted it that it took Will under the alley.

Then a voice boomed everywhere around him. " _In order to have this taken away from you_ ," What was going to be taken from him? " _Then you must prove yourself. It's time._ "

Then pain. That numbness was gone. _Excruciating pain, make it stop, make it stop_ —

Then it stopped. Bill could feel...nothing again. He was confused. He thought again of Will, but he didn't feel as sad as he did before. _What happened to me?_

"You are a demon," the axolotl appeared in front of him again. "You are by the name Bill Cipher. You'll invoke my name if you want to prove yourself."

Then he went away.

Prove himself to what?

He looked down at himself.

His body was gone.

Instead of human flesh and fingers, a glowing, yellow triangular body with black arms and legs. He saw his bowtie and felt his hat atop his head. And for some reason, he did not care.

No, what he wanted to do was find someone. But he didn't know how to.

___

"And then I did find some other demons. They took me in. They were my new family and hey taught me the ways of demon life for a long time, until," a dark shadow appeared across Bill's eyes. "Until I killed all of them. In a fire. I-it was by accident. I always told everyone in the other dimensions that it was the arson who started the fire but," he rubbed his eyes. "It was me. Oh, I miss that place so much, but it's gone. I destroyed it."

Dipper took both of Bill's hands. He didn't say anything but watched in wonder as Bill Cipher cried in front of him.

"Will," he cried silently. Pain glittered his eyes as he looked up and their gazed locked together. "I killed him," he shook his head. "I killed him, Dipper."

Dipper pursed his lips. "Go on," he said. He still needed a reason why Bill treated them like shit during their first summer in Gravity Falls.

Bill looked up at him. His tears were now gone. "I treated you so badly because anger had blinded me. For so long, I was so mad at myself and everyone and this _thing_ —it made me evil. Like, very evil. But it was still me, though." He closed his eyes again. "I'm so very sorry, Pine Tree."

Dipper craned his neck up to kiss Bill's brow, steadily and surely. "I think I understand," he said to him.

Bill unleashed an ugly sob and pulled Dipper into a bone-crushing hug.

While they hugged, Bill told him that he said the axolotl's name when he was about to "die" during Weirdmageddon, the axolotl had given him a second chance as a human. And that second chance was now...and he was apparently almost finished with proving himself. Dipper didn't know what he needed to prove himself for, but he now trusted Bill. Bill Cipher.

They hugged on that bench until Bill's stomach growled.

Dipper had snorted and took him back to the house. They'd tell Stan, Mabel, Paz, and maybe Ford about Bill. Now, Dipper just needed the time to figure stuff out.

And Bill gave him that time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter I’ve written, lol. We’re more than halfway into the story now!!


	14. GDB WZHOYH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s New Year’s Eve and they track down that wyvern. Make ups and other things ensue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m super sorry that this came out so late, school has been kicking my but hard this second semester!

Last night Dipper brought Bill back home and he had a great night's sleep for the first time since before the break started.

When the two went downstairs that morning, Dipper's mother pulled Bill into a big hug and he mouthed to Dipper, help me. But Dipper had scoffed and hid his smile behind his hand. How could a demon as powerful as him be outwitted by a middle-aged woman?

Mabel and Pacifica came down the stairs. "Where'd you go last night?" Asked Paz, putting a hand on her hip. Mabel crossed her arms. They both waited for an answer.

Leah let Bill go and she went away to give them all the privacy that they needed.

  
Bill fiddled with the hem of his shirt. "Well, uh..."

"Let's go somewhere more private," Dipper suggested, dragging Bill and Mabel with him. Mabel grabbed Pacifica's hand. They all have a lot to think about, especially Pacifica and Mabel because Dipper and Bill were going to tell them the truth.

  
Dipper went up the stairs to his room with the rest and closed the door behind him. No one sat on the bed or leaned against the wall. The girls were just standing there, waiting for some answers to where Bill was all night.

Dipper weakly gestured to Bill beside him. "Mabel, Pacifica, I'd like to introduce to you...Bill Cipher."

Bill waved poorly. "In the flesh." No smirks or dramatics of any kind.

  
Pacifica blinked. Mabel froze completely and her mouth fell open. Paz surveyed Bill up and down, putting all the pieces come together. Dipper could see her eyes getting wider every second. Mabel stared at Bill's face as if he'd grown two demonic heads on the spot.

Dipper could feel Bill's nervousness beside him and his hand itched to reach out and grab Bill's, but it was useless now.

  
Finally, Pacifica started to breathe faster and Mabel looked like she was about to scream an unholy screech that would shake the earth. Before she could do that, and before Pacifica would pounce on Bill if she felt the need to, Dipper jumped in front of Bill, shielding him, and said, "Guys, Bill isn't evil anymore.

"Yeah, he _almost took over the entire world and almost destroyed our homes completely,_ but _yeah_ , I guess he isn't evil!" Pacifica rolled up her sleeves, baring her fists in an offense position, ready to throw punches.

  
Dipper looked back to see Bill's reaction. He had tears in his eyes. _Crybaby_ , Dipper thought, hoping that Bill would read them. But Bill showed no signs that he heard his thoughts, he only lifted his chin and said, "I'm sorry. That wasn't--"

"The right thing to do? Damn right, you--"

"Pacifica, shush!" Dipper said, hurriedly. He only now just remembered that Stan and Ford were on the same floor as them, only a couple of doors down. They remembered Weirdmageddon too damn well. They could kill Bill or torture him or something! "The Stans might hear you!"

  
Pacifica turned on her heels, throwing her hair behind her and stomping toward the door. "Great idea! _Someone_ who has enough common sense to destroy Bill Cipher forever!"

  
Mabel grabbed her arm. She was surprisingly quiet. She was just staring at Bill the whole time...Dipper wondered what was going inside her head then. "Paz, stop. I think we should listen to him."

  
The blonde looked at Mabel's hand on her arm, her gentle and steady grip. She finally looked into Mabel's eyes and nodded. A tiny nod that Dipper barely detected. She finally smoothed out her skirt and turned to face Bill and waited. But she could throw a punch or two and sue at the same time at any time.

  
Bill still had his chin up. Any traces of tears were gone. He opened his mouth and retold his backstory to the girls like he did to Dipper the night before. Except for this time, it was less detailed and had fewer tears.

  
Mabel sat on Dipper's bed during it, and now she was gaping at the ground. "Bill, I had no idea. I'm sorry," she flicked her gaze onto Dipper and he read the unspoken words in her brown eyes. _I will never let you die._

_Right back at you._

  
"It's me who should be sorry," Bill spoke again. "I wanted to create the end of the world...and for what? I realize that now after I got my humanity back. I came to your school because I wanted to tell you but I didn't know how. And I was mean to you because my instincts took over me. And I was dealing with that reflecting shit by myself, so...yeah. I can't apologize enough." He looked at Dipper. "Being here this break made me realize what true relationships are like--connection, feelings, love." He looked at the ground finally. "I don't expect you guys to understand or even forgive me."

"I might forgive you," Dipper couldn't believe his eyes when Pacifica took a step forward. "But you have to prove yourself."

_Don't screw this up, Bill._

Bill smiled and at last wiped a tear from his eye. "This...this is the happiest I've been in years!"

Mabel got up from the bed and wrapped her arms around Bill's neck, burying her face in his shoulder. "I forgive you, Bill!" Paz eyed them both and reluctantly and carefully wrapped her arms around the two.

Bill opened his eyes and cast his gaze in Dipper's direction. Dipper met them. Then...Bill held out his hand. Inviting him in.

Dipper smiled wide and laced his fingers with Bill's and allowed himself to be pulled into the hug. Bill's sniffles were the only sounds in the room.

Then there was a knock on the door.

"It's Stan!" Stan said.

"Uh, c-come in!" Dipper replied, awkwardly stepping out of the hug as the others did too.

Stan swung open the door. "Now, what were you four yapping about? You woke me from my nap. I was dreamin' about—"

Dipper nodded vigorously, not wanting to hear about Stan's random wet dreams. "Okay, okay, we get it." But he felt his back break into a cold sweat. What had he heard them saying?

Stan huffed. "Well, in case any of you have forgotten, tomorrow is the new year." Dipper heard Mabel mutter her creative made-up curses. Stan tapped his meaty fingers on the wooden door before saying, "So, I guess right now's the time to get all your celebratory New Year's shopping done." Then he left.

Mabel gripped Pacifica's wrist so tightly that Dipper felt sorry for her. " _Paz, I totally forgot!_ " was what Dipper heard when they stormed out of the room and closed the door shut.

Then Dipper and Bill were alone.

"Do...do you forgive me? For what I've done to you and your family?" Bill said quietly. He didn't reach Dipper's gaze.

Dipper blinked. He did say that he understood him, but did he really not tell him that he forgave him? "Yes," Dipper said with confidence. "I forgive you, Bill."

Bill zoomed up to Dipper and crushed him in his arms. "Oh, thank you! I'm even happier than I was a few moments ago!"

Dipper felt like he couldn't breathe, but weakly pat Bill on the back nonetheless. Now he really couldn't ignore his feelings now...Bill was hugging him. For a while, now. Dipper liked him. Dipper Pines liked Bill Cipher. Heat rose to his cheeks and he tried to push the demon off of him. "Alright, Cipher, up you go..."

"You're awfully persistent, Pine Tree," Bill breathed against his neck. He could _feel_ Bill smiling against his once cool skin.

  
A wave of nostalgia hit the adult so hard that he almost put all his weight on Bill. Dipper stuttered, "Bill, I-I'm about to fall, I think you should...get off now."

  
"Ugh, fine."

Even though that hug lasted for almost 20 seconds, it felt like a whole 2 minutes. But Bill didn't fully get off of him, however. He rested his hand on Dipper's lower back, other on his cheek, holding him close. Dipper didn't know where to put his arms. Cipher was close to Dipper's face. Too close. The brunet found himself leaning in, too. He wanted Bill.

  
Bill said in a low voice that sent shivers down Dipper's spine, "Let's finish what we started at the pool, yeah?" Dipper watched Bill's lips move.

  
Screeching outside was what they heard next as if it were an answer.

  
Startled, the two sprang toward one of the two windows in the room. That sounded like Mrs. Pines! Dipper's blood chilled, his body forgetting Bill's touches. He had totally forgotten about the wyvern! He was so caught up with those triangles and Bill revealing his true identity to even remember.

  
"Bill, grab the sharp kitchen knives from the kitchen," Dipper ordered Bill. He didn't know how to defeat a dragon...never did before in Gravity Falls. Journal 3 didn't have ways to open up any portal and he'd never memorized the other journals, he couldn't get them right now because they were in Ford's room.

  
Bill's pretty eyes were worried. "Pine Tree."

Wait, wasn't Bill an all-knowing demon? Dipper asked, "Bill, do you have any idea how to defeat a wyvern?"

"What? No, but I--"

"Grab the knives, I'll grab the rest of what I can," Dipper said, "I'll meet you downstairs in a second!" Dipper didn't watch Bill run out his bedroom door. Dipper never dawdled during times like this.

  
Dipper went to his closet to grab his monster hunting stuff, yes, Dipper realized that closets aren't the most reliable places to hide your stuff.

  
He slung the worn down backpack over his shoulder, slapped on his pine tree hat, and ran out the door outside, Bill right behind him. He tossed him some rope, w **h** ich Bill put on his belt. All Dipper could hear was their breathing and the crunching of dry twigs beneath their feet. If Mabel were there to help them, then it will get the job done faster! _Oh, well,_ Dipper thought. _Maybe killing a wyvern will be a good end to the year._

  
Dipper suddenly stopped. Bill cursed as he almost bumped into him.

  
This was where Dipper estimated the scream came from. Dipper held out his hand to signal Bill to keep silent.

  
" _HELP!_ "

  
" _Mom!_ " Dipper started and followed his ears. He stopped to look around once more. "Mom? Mom!" Oh, come on! Why was he out of breath that quickly?

"Pine Tree! Over here," Bill waved a hand toward himself, signaling for him to follow. Dipper did.

  
At last, they had found Mrs. Leah Pines, cornered by that large wyvern from another world that they had to get rid of. The poor woman's eyes were glazed with terror and she wouldn't move. She was in shock.

  
"Hey, overgrown lizard!" Bill's call seemed to get the beast's attention and he threw a pebble on it. One side of it's scarred face turned toward him, its feline-like eye slitting into a straight line. Dipper could feel Bill stiffening in fear beside him. "W-well uh, come and get me!" And like that, Bill distracted the wyvern to get away.

  
Dipper ran toward his mom across the clearing.

  
Only Stanford was there behind her.

Bill ran and ran and ran. He hasn't felt this energized in years! He ran in random patterns, trying to tire out the wyvern and bound it with Dipper later.

  
He could feel the beast's hot breath on his neck, its stinky breath sneaking up into his nose. Bill didn't care, he needed to get this thing the fuck away from his newfound family.

  
He swerved and ducked, yelped and ran and ran and ran. He could sense it slowing down behind him, but it wasn't enough. At this point, Bill was running out of breath, not to the point he was wheezing though, and his legs hurt. He urged his mind to stop thinking of anything else except to run.

  
The wyvern tripped. It wobbled and then fell with a pained noise. Bill smirked--its wings were ruined from forcing them through the trees.

  
But there wasn't rope.

He groped for at least _something_ to tie it with before it could figure out it could run--but he had a rope on his belt. When did it get there? _Oh, right._ Dipper tossed him something when they were running out the back door.

  
Bill's smirk returned and he wrapped the wyvern's large, wriggling body with it then pulled hard to tighten it. He then tied a large not so it wouldn't come undone.

Once Bill's breath was finally back after those long minutes of running, Bill wiped the dirt and dust off his hands and laughed. Wow--he was human now, and he tied up a wyvern with his own two hands! If only those other henchmaniacs were there. Bill would laugh at their faces and yell at them, saying, _Ha! I proved you wrong!_

But those days were over, Bill told himself while he glared at a tree. That wasn't him anymore. He was done with being evil...the corrupted soul was not corrupted anymore. He was human now and...he loved someone.

  
The wyvern growled as if it heard Bill's thoughts.

"Shut up, you old lizard."

  
Dipper looked at Ford. Ford looked at Dipper.

The face he had loved, the face he had not seen in what seemed like a million years. The face that hated him.

Dipper tore his eyes away from him and helped his mother up and slung her arm over his shoulder. Ford stepped up toward her other side as if to help, but Dipper sent a glare to Ford's shoes. The man did not step any further. He watched his grand nephew drag his shocked mother home.

It was too quiet.

Lucky for him, he liked the quiet.

"Dipper."

Dipper didn't answer. Where was Bill? He probably took care of the wyvern by now.

"I'm sorry—"

"Are you?" Dipper interrupted. He grunted as he moved faster, just wanting to go home. He didn't want to deal with this.

"I-I should've...realized," Ford walked a healthy distance away from Dipper. "I should've realized that this is a part of who you are and I should have accepted that, but I didn't." He started to pant. "I'm sorry," he said again.

"Why didn't you come out of your room to tell me this all this time?" Dipper whispered, fearing that if he spoke any louder, his voice would break. He wanted to be strong.

"Remember that you're my grand-nephew, and I love you. I'll always love you an I'll always be proud of you. Always. I don't care about that anymore...Stan gave me a huge lecture, don't worry," Dipper could tell he was trying to lighten the mood but it wasn't working.

Dipper stayed silent and his heart leaped as he saw home.

"What do you want me to say, Dipper?" Dipper slowed down his steps. "I already apologized to you...you're barely speaking to me. How will I make it up to you?" Ford sighed tiredly. "I'm sorry," his voice broke.

Dipper stopped finally and turned to look his uncle in the eye. "I'm sorry too."

Ford had the question, what for, in his eyes, but before he could say anything, Bill caught up with them. He was panting and his amber eyes slid to Ford momentarily before going to Dipper's side, arms touching.

"I captured the wyvern," he told him, out of breath. Dipper smiled a genuine smile. "It's still alive, but tired."

"Have you found any portals or anything?" Dipper asked him.

Bill released a big breath they could see in the biting cold. "No, but I'm pretty sure you just use silver to kill them if we need to. Which," he paused, "I'm pretty sure we need to." He shrugged.

"That's fine, we'll figure it out once my mom and Ford gets back inside," Ford gave him an incredulous stare. Dipper ignored him and turned to Bill again, "Will you lift her other side, please?" Like Ford had offered but been dejected.

Bill muttered an agreement and gently slid her free arm over his shoulder. Dipper released a sigh of relief when he didn't need to carry much weight anymore.

They made it to the door a few minutes later. Dipper was glad his father was at work right now—he'd probably be freaking out.

Dipper set her down gently on the couch, putting a few spare blankets from the closet on top of her. She was shaking with cold and she wouldn't talk. Dipper hoped she would be better soon.

"Hey Ford," Dipper called and his Great-Uncle lit up like a Christmas tree, "will you make some hot chocolate for her? Thanks!" Dipper didn't look at him as he pulled Bill out the door with a silver knife from inside his backpack, ready to use.

"Wait!" Ford called.

Dipper and Bill stopped. The brunet sighed as he gave the knife to Bill. "Go and wait for me," he told him. Bill nodded and ran out, closing the door behind him.

After a moment, Ford grabbed Dipper's arms and Dipper almost yelled if it weren't for his mother in the living room. "Dipper, how does he know about the supernatural?!" His eyes were wide. Dipper's heart froze, "Do you think he's—"

"Cipher? No," Dipper lied. " _Rephic_ had lived in Gravity Falls for about 2 years, I think he's seen the supernatural before."

"But why in Gravity Falls?"

Dipper pulled Ford's scarred hands off his arms. "Ford, if he was _Bill_ , we would deal with it easily." They wouldn't need to.

Ford huffed. "I guess. But," Dipper turned toward him. "Be careful," he said.

"I will." Dipper gave him the barest of smiles and sprinted to where Bill was waiting for him.

They'd reached the wyvern in no time.

The beast was thrashing against its reigns, its shredded wings trying to get out, but no avail. Bill still held the large silver knife.

"Want to do the honors?" Rasped Dipper.

"Nothing messes with the Pines," Bill grunted as he plunged the knife into the squirming wyvern. Then it stopped. The beast was dead and they had saved the day.

Dipper released half a breath, half a laugh. Then he whooped. "A _wyvern!_ Bill, we defeated a wyvern!" He grabbed the demon's shoulders, who put his hands on his hips and beamed. "I thought those were only in those fantasy games and stuff, and despite shocking my mom, that was so _cool!_ "

"Yeah," Bill chuckled and kissed him.

Dipper immediately melted into it and closed his eyes. He had been waiting for this for so long—looks like Bill waited too. It'd been too long since Dipper had kissed someone and he felt way too out of practice. But he loved every second of this single touch of lips that made his heart want to explode. Bill pulled back after a few seconds.

Dipper reopened his eyes after a second. Bill was starting to let go of him, saying, "I-I'm sorry, I should have asked—"

"Bill, it's more than okay," Dipper said to him and he put his hands on Bill's cheeks. Bill's face was red. _My face feels like fire,_ Dipper thought as he pulled Bill down and brushed their lips together, this time more passionate than the last. One kiss—then two. Then more that Dipper lost count of. Bill put him against a tree and traced the brunet's bottom lip with his tongue and Dipper opened his mouth, letting Bill take him. Dipper made a small noise at the back of his throat. They angled their heads to deepen the kiss and Dipper felt like he was in paradise. He let out a small moan.

"Dipper, your mother is okay now— _oh, dear Lord,_ I'm sorry, I'll go."

Dipper squeaked and pushed Bill off of him, embarrassed. Ford was there with his back turned away. "Uh—I—yeah, we'll be back in a couple..." Dipper laughed awkwardly.

Then Ford left.

Dipper released a breath and rest his head on Bill's shoulder. "Today's been...quite the day. I'm kind of ready to sleep, but it's not even noon yet!"

Bill pulled away and gave a soft smile. "Let's go back. You can sleep forever after tonight—don't forget that it's New Year's Eve!"

Dipper groaned.

Lunch and dinner passed by in a blur. Their dad came back from work and Mabel and Paz set up decorations around the house and they drank champagne.

Stan, Ford, Mrs. and Mr. Pines, Mabel, Bill, Dipper, and Pacifica sat on the roof and watched the clock on their phones. Then—

"Three!"

"Two!"

" _ONE!_ "

Fireworks exploded all around them in the sky in an assortment of all colors. Dipper gazed at them in awe as he saw coded fireworks—the ones that created pictures. They were so breathtaking.

Bill kissed his cheek. Dipper blushed and turned to him, ready to return the favor, but he only shushed him and pointed to where Mabel and Paz were sitting. Cuddling. Kissing.

Today was a very good day. Tomorrow will bring more good things, Dipper wished.


	15. GDB WKLUHHQ

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper and Bill and Pacifica and Mabel realize their feelings. There is yet another threat and the Stan twins find something out...

"Mason?"

"Yeah, mom?"

"I had this weird dream yesterday, at least," Mrs. Pines paused, "what I think was a dream."

They'd been sitting on the couch in the living room with hot chocolate, just watching TV in the early morning just because they could. They used to do this all the time and now they had the time to just chill for a bit before everyone else woke up.

She really didn't remember? She thought it was a dream. _We've been hiding the monster stuff from our parents for way too long,_ Dipper thought. _It may be time to break the news. I don't know what to expect._

Dipper muted the TV and faced his mother. She looked alarmed. Here goes nothing, "Monsters are real."

She blinked and stiffened. She didn't move for a whole minute and a half until Dipper interjected softly, "Mom? Are you okay?"

Leah's barely even there wrinkles seemed stark against her face. She blinked a few times at his voice. Dipper noticed that her hands were shaking so he slowly took the hot chocolate out of her hands and set it on the end table, careful not to startle her.

She looked down at the couch, her hands fidgeting. "I-I don't know, I don't know how to feel about this. I hope you're joking," she looked up at him again but **q** uickly turned her eyes a **w** ay. "Of course you wouldn't be joking with me, your jokes are terrible," Dipper made an offended sound at the back of his throat. His mother started stuttering and Dipper touched her shoulder.

"Mom, it's okay," He said soothingly. "We've been dealing with monsters and stuff for years. We took care of that monster from yesterday easily."

Her dark eyes snapped up, startling Dipper this time. "We?"

Dipper frowned. There was no backing out of this...and he couldn't lie to his mother. "Yeah. Me, Mabel, the Stans, and Bill."

"All of you?"

Dipper fidgeted uncomfortably. "Yeah..."

Leah scoffed. "And to think my family would tell me everything." But she had a ghost of a smile on her lips.

Dipper shrugged, unsure. "We didn't know if you'd believe us or not."

Mrs. Pines looked up at him again. "I know where you're coming from. I wouldn't believe me either. Awkward parent hug?"

"N-no, that's o-okay--oh, there it is..." Dipper pats his mother on the back awkwardly when she put an arm around his side, but Dipper smiled nonetheless. Leah and Timothy Pines made up the _awkward parent hug_ , the _awkward sibling hug_ , the _awkward glitter hug_ (courtesy of Mabel), you name it.

" _YO YO YO YO YO WHAT TIME IS IT? SHOWTIME_ —oh, I'm interrupting a tender moment. I'll go back upstairs."

Dipper jumped when Mabel suddenly came down the stairs. "The time is _6 AM_ , Mabel, for your information. Are you serious?!"

His sister shrugged, jumping down the stairs all the way to the floor, _why would she do that?!_ She sprinted over to them and squeezed both him and their mom. Dipper said, "Why do you have to yell _Hamilton_ lyrics at 6 AM?"

He felt Mabel frown darkly against his neck. " _Then stand, Dipper. Weehawken. Dawn. Guns. Drawn._ "

Dipper groaned put pat her back. "Why do I even love you."

Mrs. Pines squeezed them. "We all love each other."

"That's true!" Bill piped up— _wait_ —

" _When did you get here?_ " Dipper near-screamed. The women chuckled and let go of Dipper. Bill was standing next to the bottom of the stairs.

Bill shrugged. "I heard Mabel and she woke me up. Might as well get up, right?" He sat on the couch next to Dipper and slung his arm over the back of the couch, almost touching Dipper's shoulders. If his mother and sister weren't in here with them, he probably wouldn't have minded it.

"Haha, sure," said Dipper, trying to maintain his calm.

His mom got up from the couch. "Well, I'm going to get ready for the day. Why don't you all make some breakfast? You're dad's about to leave for work."

Mabel grinned. "I'll go wake up Paz," she said and practically jumped off the couch. But Dipper stood and grabbed her arm. She shot him a confused glance. "Yeah?"

"Sooo?" Dipper's eyebrows waggled suggestively.

"What? _Oh_ —heh. Yeah." She rubbed her neck in embarrassment. "So, it's official, I guess. We talked about it last night," Mabel told him.

Dipper pulled her into a hug. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks, bro!" She looked at Bill over Dipper shoulder, who was still sitting on the couch. She grabbed his arm this time and dragged him into the kitchen, much to Dipper's confusion. He raised an eyebrow. Mabel said quietly, "Something's going on between you and Bill and I want to know about it?"

Dipper opened his mouth to protest but immediately closed it. He couldn't lie to Mabel. He took a deep breath and said, "Yeah. Bill...kissed me yesterday. I might have kissed back. I'm not entirely sure what it means yet...I might tell him today."

Mabel broke apart from him and squealed quietly. "Oh my _gosh!_ "

Dipper just awkwardly stood there.

She turned to him with a serious look a Dipper suddenly turned afraid. "We are going to get you to confess right when we walk into that living room, understand me?" She pushed him into the living room where Bill was waiting patiently and said to them, "I'm going to go wake up Pacifica. Okay, bye!"

Then she took off.

Bill raised a groomed eyebrow. "What did Shooting Star need from you?"

Dipper took a deep breath and sat on the couch. "So, yesterday."

"What about it?" Bill asked.

Dipper fiddled with his fingers. "The—uh, kiss." He didn't look up to see Bill's reaction. "Y-you see, I think I've liked you ever since we had that car trip here, but I just hid it, maybe. I felt like I got to see a part of you that no one else saw because you don't have very many friends," a choked hey from Bill, "and I just denied my feelings for you. Like, I think the time I knew for sure was two days before the carnival, the night when we had the snowball fight with Mabes, Paz, and Stan. You asked me—"

"Why your head was written in stars," Bill finished. He had a kind of glazed look in his eyes as he brought his arm up and carefully brushed Dipper's bangs out of the way to the Big Dipper was visible.

"I—then I began to fall for you some more and when you called me _Pine Tree_ , I didn't know how to feel," Dipper shook his head and Bill's thumb brushed against his shoulder soothingly. "I thought maybe that I should hate you, but my mom said that I should find you and I decided to hear you out. Now...now I know why you did all the things you did—it wasn't really you, but it was. And I forgive you." Bill's shoulders shook and he ducked his head. "And then I realized that I shouldn't just throw my feelings away—I thought, _this is the same Bill that I've been dealing with all winter break. I shouldn't discard my feelings_. And then I—I fell in love with you all over again." Dipper took a deep breath again. He was finished. He carefully dragged his eyes back up to see Bill's final reaction.

Bill brought his head back up. His brilliant hazel eyes glistened with tears and he smiled wide. Before Dipper knew it, Bill threw his arms around him tightly. Dipper smiled warmly and wrapped his arms around Bill's slim waist.

"Soo," Bill said after a few seconds. "You love me?"

Dipper laughed. "Duh, you jerk."

"Okay, good, because I love you too."

Before Dipper could say anything, Bill pulled back and kissed him right on the lips. Dipper sighed out through his nose, finally feeling the most content that he has ever felt on this trip.

**___**

They sat on that couch for a while, just kissing each other and cuddling on the couch while they waited for the rest of the family to wake up and for Mabel and Pacifica to be done with the breakfast in the kitchen, which their noisiness blocked out the sounds of their confessions and the...other things.

Around half an hour later, they heard heavy footsteps down the stairs. Dipper and Bill quickly broke away and looked at a particularly interesting stain on the end table.

  
"Good-morning' kiddos. The smell of bacon woke me up!" Stan grumbled. "Is it done yet?"

  
Dipper shrugged. "Mabel and Pacifica are making breakfast now. Is dad up yet?" He asked.

"Yeah, yeah, he's getting ready right now." Then he zoomed into the kitchen.

Ford stood awkwardly on the stairs and he could feel Bill stiffening beside him. "Hey Grunkle Ford," Dipper said carefully. "There's a spot next to me if you want it while we wait for breakfast to be ready."

  
Ford smiled and nodded and his posture relaxed. "Yesterday was quite the day, huh?" Dipper hummed in agreement. "Now, how do you think the wyvern got in California in the first place?"

They began to share their theories for a few minutes, excitedly waving their hands and big smiles on their faces.

  
_Home_ , Dipper thought. This is home.

  
When breakfast was ready, so were the rest of the Pines family. They quietly ate their breakfast, sharing conversations from time to time and laughing when the coffee fogged up Stan and Ford's glasses.

  
"So," Dipper said, finishing the last bite of his pancake. "Who wants to walk outside for a while?"

That's when the parents stood up. Timothy took his plate to the sink and said, "Sorry, son. Your mother and I have work that we need to do. Maybe next time!" Then the parents waved goodbye and left the house.

  
"Looks like it's us now," said Mabel mischievously. "You all know you have nothing else going on in your lives, now put your plates in the sink, get some jackets on, and _let's go!_ "

  
Stan groaned. "Do I have to put pants on?"

"Ew, yes you do!"

  
That was a good end to a perfect morning.

  
But once they were all ready to go outside, it turned out to be snowing.

  
Bill sighed and Dipper linked arms with him, desperate for more warmth. But Dipper kept on a neutral face as if this was the most normal thing to do and didn't return his family's odd glances.

  
"I'm not a heater, Pine T-- _Pines_."

Dipper released an exasperated breath. "Where do you think you're from?" He whispered.

"Good point."

  
"So...where are we even going?" Pacifica asked, the only one who was wearing a coat lined with warm fur.

  
Dipper lit up. "Further out into the forest, there was this hidden cave I found and I wanna go check it out!"

Ford said, "You don't think there will be anything weird, don't you? Remember that this is California, not Gravity Falls."

"What about that wyvern?"

"Good point."

Dipper made a lot of good points that day, he'd realized.

  
Later, they had finally found it.

  
Pacifica released a breath that they could see and looked around. "How far are we from the house or...any civilization? I can't feel my feet out here."

Ford repositioned his square-framed glasses on his big nose, redder than normal in the cold. "I would say about a few miles from the house, and I'm pretty sure the nearest main road is about another few miles away."

"I should've stayed inside and watched Ducktective," Stan grumbled.

  
"Alright then," Dipper took his arm out of Bill's and rubbed his hands together, making them warm. "Now let's explore this cave," he said, pulling two flashlights out of his pocket, keeping one for himself and giving the other to Bill, who beamed proudly.

  
"Yes, I get my own flashlight!" He boasted.

Mabel stuck her tongue out. "No fair," but she still looked happy to explore this cave nonetheless. She linked her fingers with Pacifica's and they all set off into the cave.

The cave wasn't that roomy, but they all could fit. It was cold but warmer than outside. Dipper took the lead, flicking on his flashlight and scanning all around for anything abnormal or something mildly interesting.

A few minutes later, they found some really cool rocks and Dipper had put some in his pocket, but they didn't find anything out of the ordinary, however.

Dipper sighed and said, "Well I guess we just wasted a good trip to the park or whatever."

The rest of them hummed disappointedly in agreement.

"I actually wanted to hunt something," Pacifica said, straying near Mabel as they made their way back out of the cave. "And I don't normally like this stuff."

Stan shrugged, "I just wanted to fight something."

Mabel snatched Dipper's flashlight from his hands and began vigorously turning it on and off at the dark walls, making everyone strain their eyes. "At least we can make up for it with a _party!_ "

"I'd rather not," said her brother, stealing his flashlight back. That's when Bill pointed his own flashlight at Dipper and did the same thing Mabel was doing.

"Lighten the fuck up, Pines!"

"Fuck off."

"Hey, watch your profanity," Ford scolded them.

"Oh, you certainly should," purred an unfamiliar voice so quiet that Dipper thought he imagined it if it weren't for the rest of his family stopping in their tracks as well as he.

"Look up," the sweet voice said. Dipper did indeed look up and he swallowed his scream as he saw the creature.

He saw the legs first—long, black legs that extended almost to the other side of the tunnel they were in. The claws scraped the rock as she moved. Its body was bigger than a horse and it was black with splotches of gray and white, but mostly back. But what made Dipper really balk was the upper-half body—it was human, but the skin was a grayish-white. Her ebony hair covered her breasts and hung low to just above her navel. She had pointed ears and two slits for a nose and, worst of all in his opinion, was the 6 eyes of emerging blackness.

"What do you want with us?" Ford demanded, seemingly unfazed—but Dipper knew that he was afraid as well as him—he let no one see it.

"A delicious meal," she said and dropped to the floor.

Dipper snapped out of his trance and threw his flashlight at her face to buy himself time to get an actual weapon out of his backpack. He was breathing heavily when he grabbed a dagger and pointed it warningly at the creature. He felt Bill hustle to his side, and Bill was holding the flashlight as a weapon. He could hear the rest of his family and Pacifica behind him, readying for an attack.

"You'll have to get through the Pines first."

The spider-lady flashed her gleaming white teeth at the challenge—something dark dropped from those sharp points—poison. Dipper blanched but readied himself. _Three, two, one—!_

Dipper threw the dagger at one of her eyes with brilliant accuracy, which made the creature appear blind, but it could still smell. He saw his sister raise her own weapon that she put in the waistband of her skirt before they left just in case. She nodded to Stan and Ford and Dipper knew what they were planning—they were going to be distractions so Mabel could do the final blow.

The spider-lady screeched once as she regained her footing from being blind and launched herself at Bill—who was closest, but he jumped quickly out of the way and made it hurl head-first into the wall. Her entire face was now covered in red blood and her face scrunched up in pain, but she bared her teeth. The venom.

That's when Mabel struck, a brutal slash from her own dagger, the same as Dipper's.

The creature bellowed and dove her teeth headfirst into her arm.

Mabel shrieked and it was the most terrible noise that he'd ever heard.

"Mabel!" Pacifica cried, reaching out for her. She scooped her up into her arms and yelled to no one in particular, "I need to drive her to the hospital!" And left. It was just him, Bill, and the Stans.

Dipper turned to Bill's direction, his eyes were glowing. His face shown pure anger and he used his hand to slash a great wave of blue magic toward the creature, which dissolved it completely. It was defeated. It felt like forever, but it was only just a minute or two.

Dipper almost spat on the creature's limp and bloody body if he hadn't seen Stan and Ford react to the magic.

But they all seemed to forget about the spider-lady as Ford darted toward him and pushed Bill to the wall by his neck, choking him. " _Cipher!_ I _knew_ it was you!" He snarled.

Bill looked so pathetic under his hands—his nose was bloody, his hair looked unusually untamed, his clothes askew. He looked like he was about to pass out. "Sixer," he wheezed. "You have to listen to me!"

"Why should we listen to you," Stan scurried beside his brother and held up his fist menacingly. "You almost tore this world and our family apart all those years ago!"

Bill only closed his eyes, pained tears coming out of them. Maybe those tears were something else—Stan did say that Bill was a part of the family, Dipper remembered. Now he felt betrayed—

"Stop!" Dipper cried, dashing up to him and pulling on one of Ford's arms. He felt pathetic acting like this, but he needed to save Bill. "Please, let Bill go!"

Ford whipped his head around to him. "Do you realize who this is, boy?"

"Yes! Now let—"

"You knew _all this time?!_ Why didn't you tell us? Do you seriously not get what kind of threat he poses to us and this entire universe?"

"He's not _like_ that anymore! Please, believe me!" He pleaded. "You can trust me." His voice broke. Bill met his eye. In them, a promise. _I will get out of here,_ he seemed to say. _It'll be alright._

"I'm your nephew," Dipper persuaded. "You've always trusted me." He saw Stan's eyes falter, looking hesitant. He took a step back. "Please," Dipper whispered. Dipper felt the tears trying to burn through his eyes.

Stan finally took a step back and laid a hand on Ford's shoulder. "We should listen to the kid," he said.

Ford growled and glared a warning at Bill before letting him go. Bill dropped to the ground wheezing, but Dipper ran over to help him up.

"Hey, you gonna be alright?" Dipper asked.

"Yeah. Maybe I will." He turned a wary eye up at the grunkles.

Dipper stood up with his arm around Bill's waist and Bill's arm over his shoulder. "Bill isn't evil anymore," he finalized. "There was this _thing_ that corrupted him. It was like a parasite—it made him terrible and crazy." He held Bill tighter. "Mabel and Paz already know about him. Believe all of us when I say that Bill is to be trusted and should still be a part of our family."

He could feel Bill trying to hold in a sob.

Stan glared daggers at Bill and picked up their supplies. "Fine. For Mabel's sake," he said, then left.

"We'll talk about this later," Ford promised and followed Ford.

"Thanks for savin' me," Bill whispered.

"Anytime," Dipper answered, but Bill wasn't listening. He fell asleep on him. Dipper sighed and hauled him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Monster hunting's better than working out.

Once they got back, Dipper cleaned up his and Bill's wounds and gave Bill a warm glass of hot chocolate to drink. He watched him drink it and Dipper took out his phone and called Pacifica.

" _Dipper! Mabel's in the ER, they're taking the poison out of her,_ " she said before Dipper could even ask what was going on. " _She's fine. It was almost into her system when we actually made it._ "

"T-that's good to hear," he responded. He sighed deeply in relief. Bill looked questioningly at him and mouthed, "Mabel's fine." Bill grinned and went back to his hot chocolate.

"Thank, Paz. Thank you for taking her to the hospital to quickly. We really owe you."

" _You don't need to owe me_ ," Pacifica answered, her voice quiet. " _Thank Mabel. She did stun the creature enough for Bill to...I felt the magic._ "

"Oh."

" _Did...did they find out?_ "

"Yeah..." Dipper shifted uncomfortably on the couch. "They're really pissed off about it. They're old, they'll get over it."

She snorted. " _Yeah. You're right. Bye, Dipper!_ "

"Bye!"

Dipper bent over to put his phone on the end table and looked over at Bill, who was asleep again. Dipper sighed and lent over to kiss Bill's cheek meaningfully. "We'll get your situation sort out tomorrow, I promise."


	16. GDB IRXUWHHQ

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mabel heals and the Pines, including Pacifica and Bill, pack and leave for Gravity Falls for the remainder of their break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one more chapter left after this!

" _Bill Cipher_."

Bill's eyes shot open. He was in a world of pitch black—save for the stars and _the_ axolotl in front of him.

"Bill? What's going on?" Bill jolted as he realized Dipper was beside him. Maybe this wasn't a dream...

"Oh, yes, Cipher, you both are most definitely asleep."

"Why are we here?" Bill asked, making sure his voice is strong and loud.

The axolotl seemed to hum in amusement. "I thought you already knew. Right before you were defeated in the summer of 2012, you invoked my name and begged for a second chance. I gave you your second chance—and you've completed my task that I secretly gave you—to fall in love." It gestured its small hand toward Dipper. Bill took Dipper's warm hand in his. "Now I think it is time for you to return since you've finished."

"No!" Bill blurted the word before he knew what to think. He tightened his grip on Dipper's hand, who's eyes were wide, and glanced back to the pink axolotl. "My home is here...with the Pines family. On Earth. I have no desire to come back to the place I once lived."

"If you say so. Enjoy your life with your new love, Bill Cipher. Be grateful."

Then they woke up.

They were facing each other in Dipper's bed, legs all tangled up. Bill grinned at him. Was Dipper really with him in that dream?

Dipper grinned back. "So...an axolotl, huh?"

Bill pushed him but quickly pulled him back and Dipper yelped as Bill peppered kisses all over his face. "I get to be with you!" Bill was so happy that he felt like he could burst. "I love you," he panted.

Dipper leaned in and planted a kiss on the corner of Bill's mouth. "I love you too."

Bill started to laugh which turned into tears real quickly. He wrapped his arms around Dipper and hugged him.

Then Dipper's phone started buzzing.

He groaned and reached over Bill for his phone. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Pacifica's name. Bill rose a brow but Dipper held up a finger.

"Pacifica? Everything going okay?"

" _Dipper, yeah, everything is going great! Thank God there wasn't much in her system. They're letting her out in like, an hour. Also she told me to remind you that we're leaving for Gravity Falls today_."

"Wait, _what?_ Winter break went by so fast."

" _I know! I was surprised too. Anyway, you guys better be all ready and packed up by the time we get back_."

"Fine. Bye!"

" _Bye, loser_." Then she hung up.

"So," Bill said with a face that told Dipper he was eavesdropping. "Guess we better pack up."

"Yep," Dipper said, sitting up. Bill hugged him tighter. "Bill, come on, Pacifica and time are going to kick our butts if we don't get up and pack. Get off of me."

Bill started to plant kisses on the back of Dipper's neck and his face and ears were flushed. "C-come on, Bill..." He leaned back against him and made a soft sound. "Alright, but seriously. We need to pack." He got off of Bill and took his hand.

Bill stuck his tongue at him. "Fine," he said and at last started to pack their things.

Around an hour later, the front door opened and Pacifica and Mabel walked through the door. Dipper immediately ran over to her and cautiously hugged her. "Mabel, I'm so sorry! This was all my fault...I should have never went on that hunt with you guys."

Mabel pat his back. "Dip, it's alright! I'm fine—don't beat yourself over it."

"Your arm almost got ripped off and you also got poisoned," Dipper deadpanned.

Mabel shrug. "I'm still fine—I just have to eat healthier and exercise for like, a week. It wasn't that bad."

Dipper pulled back and eyed all the bandaging along her forearm. Mabel lifted Dipper's chin with her fingers and met his gaze. "I'll be okay. Stop being a worrier. I'm not going to die, okay? I love you."

" **W** orrying is kind of what I do. Also, I **l** ove you too."

"Well then, stop worrying about _me_ and worry about _you_. Did you get your stuff packed for the trip in a bit? Because if you didn't, Pacifica would murder then leave you if you don't have it packed right now." She had a knowing look on her face when she waggled her eyebrows, looking at Bill, who was speaking with Pacifica.

"Oh, _shut up,_ we did pack!"

Mabel stuck out her tongue playfully at him.

Meanwhile, Pacifica and Bill were speaking by the stairs.

"So," Bill said. "How's that family of yours going?"

Pacifica shrugged and averted her blue eyes away. "They're the same, I guess," she answered. "The same last time you were there: self-centered and selfish. But they don't care anymore about the Pines since I won't stop being friends with them, no matter what they try to tell me to stop hanging out with them." She lifted her chin in triumph, her hoop earrings shifting at the movement.

Bill nodded and smiled. "That's good. I hope they don't mind my coming in sometime."

"You warped my father's entire face during Weirdmageddon."

"He deserved it, don't deny it."

"Okay, true."

Dipper asked them, "Wait, do you know where Stan and Ford are, are they in bed still?"

Paz picked at her manicured nails. "No, they left for Gravity Falls earlier this morning."

"Which means you'll be having lunch with us!" Everyone jumped when Leah Pines suddenly appeared on the stairs. Timothy followed behind. "You four have to leave at noon if you want to get to Gravity Falls at a good time, so that's why we're going now!" She flashed a smile so wide that Dipper wanted to hug his mother.

Dipper looked around the living room. "Well, I guess it's good bye to this house until spring or summer break." He choked when his dad suddenly enveloped him in a bear hug. Mabel joined right in, pulling Pacifica with her. Bill gladly joined in and Mrs. Pines joined heartily.

"So, McDonald's or Burger King?"

And so they put all of their stuff in the trunk of their cars and rode in thus cars to the fast-food place--Dipper and Bill in Bill's car, Mabel and Pacifica in Pacifica's car, and then the parents in one of their own cars. This brought a wave of nostalgia toward Dipper...last time he was in this car, he barely even knew Bill Rephic and had no idea he was Bill Cipher, despite the yellow. He had loathed this guy, perhaps even liked him at this time, and just wanted nothing to do with Bill in general.

Now, Dipper knew who Bill was. He knew what he was, how he became what he had become, he felt happy next to Bill's side. His boyfriend's side. He now wanted to do (almost) everything with him. 

"You're staring pretty hard at yourself in the mirror, Pine Tree," Bill observed, knocking Dipper out of his thoughts. "We're almost there to the restaurant, don't pass out on me now. Don't want your pretty face to be covered in nap-marks once we get there."

Dipper blushed. "Did you call my face pretty?"

"Did I fucking stutter?" 

Dipper grinned bashfully, but answered Bill's question, "I was thinking about how much you and I have changed ever since we were sitting in this car."

Bill thought for a moment then hummed. "Yeah, you thought my music choices were bad."

"They're not bad," Dipper admitted. "I just wanted to discard the fact that I had to spend the break with the only person I didn't like."

Bill pouted. "Hey, you were pretty hard to deal with yourself. You would barely open yourself up and you were grumpy all the time, until you found out about me."

"Again, I had to spend break with the one person I didn't like."

"Well, you like me way more than you liked me then, right?"

Dipper scoffed and leaned over the console to kiss Bill's tan cheek. "I like you way more now." 

A few minutes later, they arrived at the fast-food place and had lunch with Mabel, Pacifica, and the parents. They talked a lot and enjoyed each other's company until they had all finished and it was at last noon.

They were all outside when they were saying good bye to each other. The parents wished them all good luck of their second semester classes of college and to have a safe trip home. Even Timothy and Leah hugged Bill good bye, as if he were really a part of the Pines family. 

"Keep my son happy or I swear, the Grunkles and I will beat your ass," Mr. Pines said in a cheery tone as he hugged Bill then pulled back. Bill's neck was sweating as he mock-saluted and said good bye to him.

Then Leah came up to Bill and pulled him into a hug. "You've been with us for only two weeks, but you feel like a part of the family," she said. "I wish I had gotten to know you longer like the twins and the others have." She pulled back. "How long have you all known each other?" 

Bill started sweating again. He knew Ford since the 80s, but _19-year-olds weren't born in the 80s!_ So he said, "Since we were 12." _Phew_. That was the safest answer. 

"Aww. Well, I hope you have a safe trip back to Gravity Falls. Protect my kids from the monsters, alright?"

"Will do, ma'am!"

She kissed his cheek and finally got in the car with her husband and then left, leaving the college kids to say good bye to each other since Mabel was staying at Pacifica's house for the rest of the break instead of the Mystery Shack, where Dipper and Bill were going. 

"Well, I guess it's good bye for like, two days," said Mabel as she gathered all of them into a hug. 

"Have fun at the Northwest mansion!" Dipper said cheerfully. "They have monkey butlers and everything."

"Shut up, Dipper." Snapped Pacifica, but with no real heat.

"Sorry, Pacifica." 

They all broke out of the hug. "So," said Bill to Pacifica. "Do you still have that banner of me in your house? Always nice to have fans."

"We burned that gruesome thing years ago."

Bill gaped. "It wasn't gruesome!" Everyone started to stare at him. Bill gave up. "Okay, yeah, never mind." He hugged Mabel and Paz then left for the car. 

Dipper snorted when Bill got back into his car, then turned back to the girls. "Well, good bye for now. I'll see you two in a couple of days." 

Pacifica hugged him. "Bye, loser."

Then Mabel. "Bye, bro. Love you!"

"Love you too!" Dipper waved to them and got in the car with Bill.

"Let's go home," Bill said.


	17. GDB ILIWHHQ

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill and Dipper are back in Gravity Falls. There is also a slight smut scene which is easily skipable if you’re not into that kind of stuff.

They arrived in Gravity Falls at 1 in the morning, due to frequent stops for the bathroom because Bill drank like, 3 Mountain Dews on the trip.

Stan and Ford were already asleep at the shack and Dipper, of course, had a key to get inside, Bill right behind him. They stepped inside and Dipper inhaled the familiar smell of his summer home and closed the door behind Bill. They took their bags and went up the creaky stairs to the attic.

"I've never been inside here since..." Bill winced. "That."

Dipper knew the regretful moment that he was referring too. He turned and smiled. "You know I forgive you." He kissed Bill's tan cheek reassuringly and took his bags into the room, the demon behind him doing the same.

Dipper studied the two beds in the wood room—his and Mabel's. Mabel's bed was nice and cute: a light yellow, slim orange stripped box spring with a mattress covered with light pink sheets, topped with a magenta blanket, pillow, and a little tiger stuffed animal. The wood headboard had a dainty daisy in the middle. His was anything but that—plain and simple: a wood bed frame with a mattress with a pillow and a blue blanket. He'd put sheets on it later.

He set his stuff on the little circle carpet in the middle, Bill doing the same. He then flopped onto his bed with his eyes closed. He peeped open an eye and he noticed Bill standing there. Oh, whoops. "Um, you can sleep with me or you can sleep on Mabel's bed."

Bill smiled and nodded, walking over toward him and he took his shoes off before laying down. Dipper scooted over to make room for his demon. Once they got comfortable, Dipper said, "Goodnight, Bill."

Bill said, "Goodnight, Pine Tree."

The first thing Dipper saw the next morning was the light of the sun shining on Bill's face, illuminating his features. He couldn't help but kiss his cheek sweetly.

Bill's eyelashes fluttered open to reveal those dazzling hazel eyes that Dipper loved so much. He smiled. "Morning," he said.

Bill grinned, took Dipper's hand and kissed his fingers, making all the blood in his body rush to his face. It reminded him of that moment on the Ferris wheel when they went to that amusement park...

"I love you," Bill said on his fingers. Dipper was wide awake now.

He stared at the face that he'd once hated. The face that was with him all winter break, but it felt like an eternity. The thing that invaded Bill's mind all those years ago—that wasn't Bill, but it was. It made him do things that he never wanted to do. All he ever wanted to do was to be good...he tried that with his brother, to take care of him when he was sick before he died...that's when the _thing_ took over. It made Bill murder his own brother with magic against his own will. And then it took over. The real Bill was still in there—fighting. Dipper knew. Bill is making it up to the world...being the person he has always wanted to be. A good person. And Dipper loved him with all his heart.

He grinned toothily. "I love you, too." Bill leaned forward and kissed the corner of Dipper's lips—which made him self-conscious of morning breath. "Time to get up," he sighed against Bill's mouth. Bill went in again to catch Dipper's lips and Dipper said, "Bill, come on, we gotta get ready for today. Aren't we doing date stuff?"

Bill leaned back against the pillows and groaned. "Fine."

Dipper sat up but before he stood, he captured the moment of seeing Bill's hair turn gold in the morning sun.

**___**

Dipper kept forgetting it was winter because he was in his summer home. He almost stepped outside in the bitingly cold air with nothing on but a loose T-shirt, pants, and shoes.

His coat suddenly draped over his head. He turned and found Bill smirking at him. He had his usual yellow attire on with a black coat. "Dummy," he said.

Dipper stuck his tongue out at him and went outside with Bill behind him.

He shivered against the cold settling in his bones. Bill took his arm in his. And then they walked into the forest.

He had not been in these woods since the summer. He would not ever forget his first time in his favorite place—he was only twelve when he endured and discovered the things that were in here and that had happened.

Dipper didn't really have the motivation to speak. He just wanted Bill to be walking right beside him while going through here. And that was just what they were doing. He listened to the crunch of frozen leaves and tiny twigs as they stepped on them. He observed the still-glowing mushrooms next to the trees. He recognized that same tree where he had discovered Journal 3.

And they discovered the statue.

Bill flinched when he saw it. Dipper just said nothing.

It was the same as it was when he had first seen it all those years ago—stone covered in moss. There is was...the demonic triangle with his hand out, ready to strike one last deal. Some parts of it were cracked and filled with dirt and other things. Some of the trees nearby were covered in graffiti but the statue remained untouched—as if people were too afraid.

Bill breathed in shakily. Dipper gripped his hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "This isn't you," he said softly. "This isn't who you are. You didn't deserve any of this."

Bill tore his eyes away from the statue and landed on Dipper. "Thank you," he whispered, "for believing in me when no one else did a couple of days ago. Thank you for rescuing me from Ford. I really owe you." His smile reached his beautiful, teary eyes.

"Bill," Dipper said, taking both of Bill's hands. "You're already everything I have ever wanted or needed. I really do love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you—if you'd like me too."

**___**

Bill stared at his first love...the only person who has ever believed in him. Years ago, he tried to reach out to Ford, but of course, the thing inside him had to ruin everything and it manipulated Ford and decreased the chances of him ever getting him help. He'd tried to warn Sixer, but the thing would not let him. He felt like he was in a dark, concrete room with nothing to do but stare out of the eye of the triangle. Like he was trapped. Like his vocal cords were slashed out. No one would listen.

But after Weirdmageddon, the axolotl gave him a second chance. He wasn't speaking to Bill Cipher: the King of the Nightmare Realm, Bearer of Chaos, but to Bill who was trapped inside the mind of the Beast With Just One Eye. _Him_. He called out to the axolotl, provoked his name—and then words that were not his—a prophecy—spilled out of his mouth. Bill Rephic was Bill Cipher. Bill Cipher the human person. Bill Cipher who has fulfilled the prophecy and was standing before the one he loves.

The Bill Cipher who loves Dipper Pines. His Pine Tree.

"You're already everything I have ever wanted or needed. I really do love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you—if you'd like me too."

Bill immediately leaned down and pressed his lips against his. "Yes, of course," he said against his mouth. "Of course I want you to."

Dipper grinned and wrapped his arms around Bill's neck. They barely noticed the bitter cold as they kissed.

But what the didn't notice at all was the gnome that was just around the tree.

**___**

Dipper jumped when he heard tiny steps that he recognized. Bill leaned in again, oblivious, but Dipper put a hand on his chest to stop him. Bill made a little noise of surprise but Dipper quickly put a finger to his lips to shush him. Noting Bill's face of confusion, Dipper pointed behind him. Bill turned around.

Dipper cautiously took out the pocket knife he always had in the pocket of his pants while he was out in Gravity Falls just in case (who knows what might jump at you when you're taking a stroll through a haunted forest), and he willed himself into a fighting stance as he stalked toward the tree.

Closer and closer. The small thing was making the noise. He heard small grunts, so it wasn't an animal, but some kind of monster that ruled this forest. Closer and closer and closer.

He heard the voice first, "Well, well, if it isn't Dipper Pines!"

Dipper immediately dropped out of his stance. It was Jeff the gnome. "Ugh, what do you want, man?"

Jeff snarled and crossed his tiny arms. "If you get that knife out of my face, then I might tell you."

Dipper looked at his knife. "It isn't in—never mind." He pocketed it. "Were you spying on us?"

"Seems like the little boy has grown up! He has a man!" The gnome smiled up knowingly at him and then adjusted his red, pointy hat. Dipper exchanged a look with Bill. "Anyway, is Mabel with you?"

A muscle twitched in Dipper's face. "No, she's not with us. Forget it, she's never going to be with you. It's been years." Bill made a face. "C'mon, Bill, let's go." They turned to walk away.

But then Jeff stiffened. "Bill Cipher?"

_Oh no. Whoops._

Dipper saw Jeff's eyes studying Bill's appearance. Bill himself wasn't doing anything but sizing up the tiny gnome. Gnomes were known to be quite.. _.bitey._

Jeff snapped his head toward Dipper. "Is that _Bill Cipher?_ " He spat his name like it was venom.

"I've changed," Bill said, stepping forward. Jeff stepped back. "You don't have to believe me. My powers are gone—I'm a human. I'm no threat anymore."

"Fine but know this: make one wrong move and the forest will rise against you and take you out like last time." He shakily met Bill's patient gaze and said, "This time, there will be no mercy." He smoothed out his brown beard and left.

The silence left his wake. Dipper could hear nothing but the chill wind—the streams were frozen, animals hibernating, monsters hiding, everything was silent all but the wind.

"You have no powers?" Dipper flashed his eyes to Bill, who was looking at his shoes. "You never told me."

Bill snapped his hazel eyes up to meet his. "I didn't want to disappoint anyone. I used the last of my power to save Mabel in that cave from the spider-lady." He broke off his stare and flopped down on a log.

Dipper breathed in and followed, sitting delicately on the cold and frozen log.

Bill's eyes were red-rimmed. "It's so different, it's like—" he shook his head and looked at his shoes again. "It's like I can't do _anything_ anymore." Dipper was about to protest, but, "Back then, I had always relied on my magic to help me through things, even _him_. Now I'm relearning how to live as an _actual human_ like I did 200 years ago. It's so different and I'm coping." Bill took Dipper's hand. "I'm learning with _you_."

"You should have told me, still."

Bill smiled sadly at him. "I'm sorry. I promise, no more secrets."

"Alright. I promise too."

Bill held out his pinky.

Dipper laughed into his free hand. "Oh my God, Bill, seriously?"

Bill just shook it for emphasis.

"Fine." Dipper held out his pinky and intertwined it with Bill's. He bit his lip. "Better than a handshake and making an actual deal."

Bill kissed Dipper playfully on the nose. "Much better."

**___**

They drove over to Greasy's after those encounters for a well-deserved lunch.

When they walked in, Dipper inhaled the homey aroma of pancakes and coffee. They slid into a booth and Lazy Susan seems to have not aged a bit, came over to them and asked them what they wanted to order.

"I'll be right back with your orders!" Susan "winked" with her open eye while her other eye adorned with eyeshadow remained closed.

Dipper smiled awkwardly and turned back to Bill. "So uh, what's your favorite thing about being a human?" He wanted to keep this conversation light, considering the stuff that happened today earlier.

Bill toyed with the end of a napkin. "I've found that I like drawing things?" He looked up and straightened his back. "It started a few years ago when I got really bored with my life and there wasn't really anything I could do except walk around town and sleep and watch TV in my apartment. And then I started to draw." His cheeks began to turn pink and he crossed his arms. "But I'm not even that good—"

"Show me."

"What?"

Dipper dug out a pen out of his backpack. "Here." He nodded his head toward the napkin Bill had been playing with earlier. "On that napkin."

Bill unfolded his arms, smiled at him, and took the pen.

He was drawing even when Lazy Susan came and delivered their food. He refused to let Dipper see it. He was covering it up with his arm and was almost hyper-focused and he cursed softly when the napkin tore a little bit.

Finally, when Dipper was halfway through his meal and Bill's only had a few bites out of his own, Bill was done. He leaned back against the seat and bit his lip.

Dipper grinned. "Did you finish?"

Bill's mouth curved into a smile as he gave the folded up napkin to Dipper. "Yeah. Open it up."

And Dipper did. "Oh, my God." He indeed opened up the na **p** kin and his eyes were met with the most amazing thing he has ever seen. It was just a silhouette, though—a silhouette of curved ground resembling Earth. On top of it stood a proud and tall pine tree with snow covering parts of it. And then there were two **h** uman-like figures next to it. One of them was smiling and pointing at something while pulling the other figure's hand. The other figure was just walking along behind him, also smiling as if he were admiring the other figure. It was of him and Bill: the first figure had a hat and a coat and the other, resembling Bill, wore boots and a jacket. It was simple but beautiful.

He hadn't realized he was crying until Bill slid into the seat next to him and wiped away tear. "I love you," he said. He took the napkin out of Dipper's hand, much to Dipper's confusion. Bill lifted the pen. "Forgot to write my signature," he mumbled as Dipper stuck out his tongue. He quickly wrote something down and gave it back to him.

_Bill <3_

"You're so sappy, I hate you," Dipper said as he kissed Bill on the lips.

"You're the one who's being sappy, _Pine Tree_ ," Bill said and moved swiftly back into his seat before Dipper hit him jokingly.

Before they could do anything else, Lazy Susan came back with a knowing smile and their bill. "A discount for the young couple, you can pay at the register." She winked again and turned around. Dipper could hear her mumbling, "I think I left the pie in the oven for too long again...or was it that spoon...can't remember."

Bill rose his eyebrows and Dipper said that she was always like that. The kitchen's probably fine.

**___**

  
They go back to the shack after Bill finally finishes his lunch after drawing his picture on the napkin. Dipper kept it folded in his pocket for safekeeping to put in a picture frame or something later.

Stan's car wasn't at the Mystery Shack so that must have meant that Stan and Ford were out shopping or something.

"Ugh," Bill groaned. "I need a nap after what happened today," Dipper grumbled his agreement and took him back upstairs to his room. They flopped down on the bed together with a sigh.

Bill settled down behind Dipper and wrapped his arms around him. Dipper smiled and sighed into his pillow. He could get used to this.

After a while, Bill said against Dipper's neck, "I can't sleep." Dipper gave a tiny hum of agreement. "How about we do a thought for a thought? Like, tell me what you're thinking and I'll tell you what I'm thinking."

Dipper kissed Bill's arm. "Sure. You first."

Bill leaned forward and rested his chin on top of Dipper's head. "Hmm...well, I kinda miss your mom." The man under him snorted and Bill said, "Your turn."

"My thought is that we've managed to become this after two weeks of being with each other."

"We kinda had to be by each other 24/7," Bill deadpanned.

"Your fault, but true."

"Anyway," Bill pondered, tapping his chin. "My next thought is that I actually managed to fall in love with you of all people—"

"Hey!"

"—because I already knew you and we didn't have that good of a friendship before, obviously. I'm surprised that things have ended up like this and I'm glad. Really glad." He gently turned Dipper around to face him. "This has been the happiest I've ever been in my whole life."

Dipper's eyes lit up and he grinned. "Who knew I'd fall in love with a Dorito?"

Bill pouted and Dipper kissed that pout off his face. He kissed those warm, warm lips that he loved. He felt so comfortable in Bill's arms and he wanted to be in them forever. If you had told Dipper that he would fall in love with Bill Cipher in six years, he might have slapped you.

Bill deepened the kiss and held Dipper's cheek. Dipper rested his free arm around Bill's waist. And then Bill pulled back and breathed against Dipper's lips, "I can't breathe when I look at you." Dipper made a noise as those words were sent right to his groin and sent shivers down his spine. Dipper wanted Bill—right now.

He pulled Bill closer and he was half on top of him, his other hand cradling Bill's tanned and freckled cheek. Bill's hand slowly went down and down his back until it landed on the sliver of skin that was peeking through. Dipper flinched in surprise.

Bill broke the kiss. "How far do you want to go?"

"As far as it takes," Dipper beamed onto Bill's jasmine-scented shirt.

"Me too," Bill said and rolled his hips onto Dipper's.

Dipper gasped when their erections brushed together, both confined in their pants. It felt like everything, but it also felt like not everything. Bill's mouth moved onto Dipper's neck, his skin electrifying beneath his touch. His fingers were gripping Bill's biceps. One of Bill's hands were on his back and the other was on his ass and Dipper almost whimpered.

"God, Pine Tree—" Bill flipped them over quickly and his hand started moving up his shirt, which set his body aflame. His hand moved back down and stopped just above the waistline of his pants. Cipher pulled away and his amazing, heavy with lust, hazel eyes met Dipper's. "May I?"

Dipper nodded vigorously. "Yes," he panted. "Please."

So Bill sat on his knees and pulled off Dipper's jeans, leaving him only in his boxers. Sighing with the relief of his pants being out of the way, he started unbuttoning Bill's as well. The throbbing of Dipper's cock was too much to be ignored, hurry, hurry, hurry, Dipper inwardly pleaded to Bill.

At last, Bill straddled him and peppered kisses all over Dipper's chin and took Dipper's dick out. Dipper gasped and shuddered and Bill took that as a chance to shove his tongue down his throat. Dipper couldn't suppress his groan as Bill's long fingers wrapped around him and started stroking.

Dipper's free hand took Bill's length out of the confines of his boxers and stroked his length too. Bill shivered and whispered, "Yes, Pine Tree, I love you..."

"I love you too," Dipper sputtered out and moved his hand to sink in Bill's golden hair.

"Wait, wait, like this," Bill sat up and he waved Dipper's hand away and wrapped his hand around both of their lengths. Dipper bit his lip and rested his head on Bill's shoulder. And then he started rolling his hips again and Dipper swore he saw stars. They both gasped at the amazing feeling and Dipper finally got his body to start rocking his hips along Bill's too. He planted kisses and small bites on Bill's shoulder to keep himself from crying out in pleasure. This felt like pure bliss.

And suddenly, Dipper felt like he was close to his release. He felt like he was at the top of a roller coaster—about to drop down. He felt butterflies in his stomach as it began to tighten. "Bill, I'm gonna—"

And then release pounded through him. He trembled a bit in Bill's arms and Bill's own release pounded through him. For a while, they just sat there, breathing in each other's air.

"Okay, come on Bill, we gotta wipe all this stuff off." Dipper gestured to the now-dried come on their skin.

Bill stuck out his tongue. "I want to sit for a while longer."

Dipper pulled back a little bit to look into Bill's eyes. _His_ Bill's eyes. Those beautiful, yellow eyes. They were radiant like stars. Dipper couldn't look away. He leaned forward and kissed both of Bill's eyelids.

"What was that for?" Bill asked.

"You're pretty," Dipper said tiredly.

His Bill breathed out an amused chuckle and kissed him on the lips. "Well, I'm gonna get my _beautiful_ boyfriend all cleaned up," he winked. "I'm gonna go get us a towel. Be right back." And then Bill got off the bed and walked nakedly to the bathroom.

" _Beautiful?!_ " Dipper squeaked when Bill got out of the room.

**___**

The Stans got home a little while later. It appeared that they went on their own monster hunt.

When it got dark, Dipper and Bill went up the ladder and on top of the roof to look up at the stars. They put on their coats and brought a really thick blanket to block out most of the cold.

Winter nights were always so quiet and there weren't any noises because they were in the forest so there was nothing to interrupt them. The only thing they heard was the whistling of the bitter wind.

Bill sighed as he looked up at the bright dots in the sky. He thought about how far their friendship had gone—they'd gone from enemies to lovers. It was like those romance novels that came true. ...Or maybe throw in some Sci-Fi into the mix or some fantasy.

"Why don't you cuss as much as you did at the beginning of winter break?" Bill asked.

"Because you always pissed me off," Dipper said simply as he squeezed Bill's hand.

He studied his boyfriend's face. When Bill first saw him that one summer, this boy used to be so pale and skinny with no muscle compared to this experienced boy with nice, defined muscles and darker, tanned skin with freckles on his body because of him going outside with most of the chances he could get and defeating monsters.

Beautiful. That's what Dipper Pines was.

And Dipper Pines, his Pine Tree, thought he was pretty.

Bill kissed his Pine Tree's cheek and looked back up at the stars. Guess he really was the one with the red [hands.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2tMKO_9SD1Y)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this story! I made a playlist on Spotify for Red Hands. If you search up, “Red Hands - BillDip” then it will be there!! Thank you again!!!


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